originally by mr zoat( belongs to him) here for audio use only
by RTWilliams
Summary: copied storiy from someone else. only here for audio purposes.origional by mr. zoat.
1. 1-7

Dependency Day

My bed feels soft. Did I go to sleep on top of the duvet? Stars? Did I leave the blinds open? I try to turn to the clock, but there's just more stars? I wake up pretty much instantly at that point and OH SHIT THAT'S THE EARTH! I see the Earth and it's a long way away and I'm breathing? I bring my hands up to my face. No, no space suit. I see the Earth and I'm breathing and I'm not cold or hot and there's no space suit? I'm in space. What?

There's something glowing on my left hand. I don't wear rings but I now have one on my ring finger? Its orange. In fact, I'm orange. I'm glowing orange. I hold my hand up to my eyes and-

-AAAAaaaauuhhhh!?

That's an orange power ring. I'm being kept alive in space by an orange power ring. Well I… I suppose I've never felt suicidal, so that much makes sense. I poke my other arm. Yes, definitely flesh, I haven't been turned into a construct. I don't seem to feel the overwhelming avarice that comes from the orange central power battery, so I guess this is one of the other rings? One of the ones that Lafleeze keeps in his cave? Does he know its gone?

Fucking stupid. It'sLarfleeze. Of course he knows it's gone.

Alright. I'm calming down. As long as I want to remain alive, I will. I can probably fly by wanting to move. I want to move.

Did I move? I can't tell. I don't seem to have moved relative to the Earth, but the Earth is very big and I wasn't trying to move that far. I don't want to go anywhere in particular. I'm still wearing my pyjamas; I can't go out in public like this. Pyjamas?

I look down to check that Iamstill wearing pyjamas. Yep, with an added orange lantern corps emblem on the chest. Guess the ring just changes whatever I wear to something thematically appropriate? Shouldn't it have generated anactualuniform?

I'm going to assume that that Earth isn't my Earth. If power rings actually existed and this one had come for me it would have found me in my bed. Unless I was dreaming about flying in space? I don't remember doing that and I don't remember seeing a ring choose a sleeping wearer in the comics. Would that work?

Huh. If that actually is DC Earth down therethen I'm going to be the most out of shapeAh! Ah! Ah! Ah!

Something happened. Everything's blurry. I think I'm standing on something, but I don't pay attention because everything hurts too much! My arms. My chest. My abdomen, myteeth, my eyes! How do eyes even hurt? They're watering and I'm blinking and gasping and all I can see is a creamy white colour and more black. I hug my arms to my chest and bend over. Oh, aagh, its not just the pain, everything feels the wrong shape. The pain is being caused by something I can't fix. I don'twantto-

And it stops. My body still sort of tingles, like I've just gone from somewhere warm into somewhere cold and the veins in my skin are trying to decide whether to contract or not. But the pain is gone. My body still feels wrong though. Ineedto see-

A thin orange line extends straight in front of me from the ring. At about four meters it stops and spreads right, as if someone was pouring liquid into a mould, only the mould is filling from the top left rather than the bottom. My first construct is a mirror. Sort of. Obviously it isn't reflecting anything, its making an image of what it would reflect. It actually has a construct frame with a beveled edge and is about three meters by two in size.

Wow. I'm looking good.

I've never been properly fat or anything, but I've never really taken to physical exercise and, well, no sense lying about it, I have been carrying a little weight about the stomach. Not any more. My arms are now about twice their earlier width. My shoulders are broader. My chest -I roll up my pyjama top- goodness, I have abs! I've never had abs! I run a hand over them. Huh, those don't feel like I was expecting. My chest hair is gone -wait, check- along with most of my other body hair.Thatfeels weird. Kind of sticky. My face -the mirror shrinks and moves closer- is pretty much the same. My nose is a little straighter and if I can see this clearly my short sightedness has been fixed. No visible hair on my chin. Skin clarity appears to have improved. The hair on the top of my head is shorter. Looks like something Hugh Grant had in his prime, but longer at the back. Not sure how it's staying where it is. It should be flopping all over the place. Teeth are improved as well. Evenly sized, shaped and in good condition. I think I also look younger? Maybe, it's hard to tell when the image is orange.

I wave my hand and the construct dissipates. And that's when I realise that I'm STANDING ON THE MOON. Grey dust and rock all around and the Earth is visible in the sky. It's too much. I'm in a place only a handful of humans have ever been and my response is to drop to the ground, staring at the sky.

I'm sitting on the moon watching the Earth. I think the ring just rebuilt my body based on how I ideallywantto look. Which really hurt. It must have been transmuting new muscle from existing fat. Or maybe even justmakingmore meat from orange power? Should I feel bad about that? Doesn't everyonewantto look a bit better than they do?

Shit. This isn't a dream. I never feel pain in dreams. And not enough is going on. I'm actually here and I have to deal with it.

Plan. Plan plan plan plan. Okay, first. Check that thisisn'tmy Earth. I need to go home to do that. If there's another me here its going to be weird, but I'm a fairly reasonable guy. DC comics don't really show much outside the US so I don't know if the places I've lived in are actually there if I have somehow entered a comic reality. I can't plan anything else until I know where I am.

Now, how do I get there?

I stand back up. I go to brush off my legs because the dirt has coating everything it touched. Then I remember I'mwearing a power ringand Ilike being clean. A ring of orange passes over my body and the dust falls slowly away. As the ring reaches my feet I float a little off the ground. No sense getting dirty again just after cleaning myself. Now that's done, how to get to Earth? I have to want it to happen but I'm mostly just feeling apprehension about what I'll find when I get there.

Anal retentiveness to the rescue!

It's late at night and I have to be up for work tomorrow. I need to get to sleep and the best place for that is in bed! On Earth! If I don't then my schedule will be completely messed up. It's working! Myneedfor regularity is controlling the flight!

Now to find somewhere familiar and see if it exists.

chapter 2:

Finding Eastbourne isn't that hard. Dropping down from the outer atmosphere I just follow the lights and the railway. It's always a bit further east than I think it is. I float down onto the station, hovering above the central track. At this time of night there's no one around so I take a good look. The building is locked up. That's normal, but then I notice that the fence between platform 3 and the car park is in the wrong style. Rather than having thick wavy uprights and a couple of crosspieces covered in chipped paint it's got thick posts with wire going across. The top actually has an overhang like they use at zoos to stop the animals climbing out, and there's actually a roll of razor wire. Who did they think was going to break in to Eastbourne fucking station? The display boards are wrong as well; they're actually LCD screens rather than the dot displays that are supposed to be there. It's stupid stuff, but when you're used to a place being a particular way itreallyhits you.

In a daze I float upwards. An orange night vision magnifier appears in front of my face and I can follow the route of the track. Hampden Park is still there. Polgate too, though it looks like they never moved the station so it's still at the end of the town rather than in the middle. Westham -the village where I grew up- doesn't exist. Looks like there's a proper station in Pevensey instead. Westham doesn't exist. Shit, I don't even….

Okay, okay, nothing I can do about it. It hasn't been destroyed, it was never there. The visor evaporates. My parents are probably fine. Next step. Next step.

Alright. I've still got no idea if I'm actually in a version of the DCU, but this definitely isn't my Earth.

I have a orange power ring, transmuted orange lantern corps pyjamas and I look like a bodybuilder. The ring-

"Ring. State remaining power."

"93% power remaining."

Woo. Did that speak out loud, or just in my head? Sounds weird. A power ring at 93% power and no way to charge it. That is a problem.

"Ring. Locate lantern."

"Specify."

"Locate the lantern this ring is paired with."

"This ring is paired with the orange central power battery. The central power battery is on Okaara."

Not pickingthatup then. Um, okay. As long as the ring is charged I don't need clothes. I probably don't need to eat either, now I think about it. Didn't Guy Gardner say something about that when he was on Superboy Prime guard duty? No, I shouldn't assume-ugh!

Come on! I spent more time reading comics than I did on my bloody degree coursework! Breath. Woosaaah. What do I need? Money, and a power source for the ring. Probably in that order. If I'm not actually in the DCU money is far more important. If I am, it's a toss up. That place is dangerous. For goodness sake, an Imperiax probe destroys the capital of Kansas and a couple of months later its business as usual. Ineedthis ring.

"Ring. Scan planet for compatible power sources."

"None found."

Shiiiiiit. Wait, no lanterns at all?

"Ring. Scan planet for power lanterns, any colour."

"Will detected."

"How many?"

"Three."

That probably means Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner and John Stewart. And I hope I didn't just tell them where I am. Shit, I hope I didn't just tell Larfleeze where I am! No, no, can't do anything about it now. I doubt they'd just give me a lantern so what - Alan Scott! Alan Scott's Starheart lantern shouldn't register as a standard lantern because it was designed as a containment vessel. If this is Justice League Unlimited or something it might even still be in China.

"Ring. Detect Guardian made containment vessels on Earth."

"Seventy-five found."

What?

"Ring, detect Guardian containment vessels containing energy."

"Twelve found."

"Any in China?"

"China unknown."

This world has no China? That doesn't sound right.

"Ring, locate Eastbourne."

"Eastbourne unknown."

"You don't have a local atlas, do you?"

"No Earth locations listed."

Unfashionable end of the western spiral… Can't make a grab on the Starheart because I can't find it. If it even exists here. Can't think of any other easily reachable power sources. Icouldask the Justice League nicely if they could put me in touch with Malthus or something. No, the Guardians would put the kibosh on that as soon as they heard about it. So, can't get a power source quickly. Money first then.

"Ring. How good are you at asteroid mining?"

"Construct strength is dependent upon avarice."

"Can we, assuming I want it badly enough, mine asteroids in this system and get back to Earth… um… with at least 60% power remaining."

"Answer depends on type and volume of material extracted and precise avarice levels."

Fair enough.

"Platinum and gold only. About this much."

I make a football-holding shape with my hands.

"And I want it as much as, uh, somewhere between my-life-depends-on-this and I've-been-looking-forward-to-this-all-week."

"Multiple variables decrease accuracy. Best estimate suggests high probability chance of success."

"Plot course to the asteroid in this system which offers the greatest quantity of the metals stated."

And Iknowwhere the asteroid is. It's… I don't know… what gravity would be if mass were money. Or something. There's no navigational display but I don't need it. I can find it like I can find the toilette at home at night without turning the lights on.

I might actually be able to make this work.

chapter 3:

The ring did all the hard work while I just grinned at the pile of thin disks floating next to me. Smashing a fairly large asteroid up, grinding it, sort of sieving it with a construct that pulled out what I wanted but left the rest of the lump behind and then shaping the metal into coins. The process was slow at first, but picked up speed after the first few disks were finished. I suppose I find it easier to want things I know I can get. It's too dark to see much of the rock, and the constructs are blinding compared with everything else so I have to look away. But I just mined an asteroid! The first human commercial asteroid miner!

I actually did five large rocks and a load of small ones before I registered that the pile was far more than I needed or could carry by myself. Its just so far outside anything I've done before! And kind of fun! I've just made more money in… I'm not sure, not much time… than I've made in my whole life. I think I'm actually giggling, but with no air I can't hear myself to be sure.

The disks, coins, are floating around me. They're about three centimetres across and maybe a third of a centimetre thick. I know that platinum is silver and gold a dull yellow but with the ring as the only light source they all look orange at the moment. And -huh- looks like I stamped them with the orange lantern corps sigil on one side and a representation of a lantern on the other. Not sure I meant to do that, but it sort of feels… right.

I should head back to Earth. I can just take some walking around money and leave the rest here.

I'm actually a bit reluctant to do that. Intellectually, I realise that the chance of anyone coming here to take any of my work is miniscule. But I always worry about whether or not I locked the door after I get to the end of my path back home. Itcouldhappen, right? I mean, they might just think the coins were odd and take a couple for some sort of analysis, but I put effort into this. These aremycoins.

I'm being silly. Where would I even put them? Just grab some small rocks, fuse them together around most of theshiny coins. No one will know they're there. I'm still going to have to carry the rest with a construct. My pyjama pockets just weren't built for this.

chapter 4

I'm floating over the Earth. I think that I'm in the upper atmosphere. I'm certainly close enough that the lights below form distinct huddles. I'm actually not completely surewhatis beneath me. Picking out coastlines covered by clouds and in the dark is not simple.

So; money, sort of check. Power source, not check but I have some leads. Information, not check. I could try eavesdropping on local telecoms but I don't want to risk being found yet. Also, what are the chances that a random call has useful information? Clothes, not check. I think that has to be my next objective. Unless I plan to convert to Sikhism I need underwear. I need something I wouldn't mind fighting in and something I can wear when I'm not trying to draw attention.

Fighting. I haven't been in an actual fightever. I haven't even been in a play fight since primary school. I suppose punch ups come with the ring but I've no idea what I'd do if someone actually went for me. Oh god, I'm like a slightly better lookingWee Hughie.

I remember from Flash villain pages on Wikipedia that there's a guy in Central City who does armoured costumes. I think his name starts with a G? B? Sounds Italian? It was a while ago. Shouldn't be too hard to find him if he exists here and I doubt he'll complain about being paid in precious metal rather than normal money. Speaking of which, I'm going to have to find out how much this stuff is actually worth. Not an immediate concern; I'll just overpay people.

Overpay a bit. I'm not going to get silly with it. That would just draw more attention. And I certainly don't want to spend all my time hanging around asteroids. That's probably only fun once.

A city full of supervillains is something I'll braveafterI find a way to charge the ring. Some sort of motorbike protective gear should do in the short term. Should be easier to find. Actually-

"Ring. State remaining power level."

"68% power remaining."

Okay, that isn't too bad. My best lead on a power source is still Alan Scott. Other options I've come up with include trying to get to Malthus (don't know where it is if it exists), Qward (insanely dangerous) or asking a local super scientist (mostly malign hypercognitives, no guarantee that even if they try they'd be able to do anything before I ran out of power). Maybe I could get some sort of local avarice demon bound to the ring? Wow, that sounded stupid. And dangerous. I'll put that just ahead of going to Larfleeze and asking nicely.

If Alan Scott exists, he'll probably live in either New York or Gotham, if those are even separate places here. My knowledge of regular US geography is weak to nonexistent and now I have a load of fictional cities to work around. I think that New York is on the east coast near the top of the US but its not like international borders are visible from up here. Under the knobbly bit with the French Canadians in it? In any case I need to find New York, or Metropolis if New York doesn't exist. Metropolis, because Gotham is a shithole full of dangerous lunatics and I'm not going there unless I have to. My need for information outweighs the risk of bumping into a Kryptonian. Should be able to get the information I need from a newspaper or a library without too much trouble. The Justice Society should have been big news and there will be some record of Alan Scott's public life. Clothes, something to put my coins in, then library. Ineed to go lower.

Waaw. Clear priorities must dosomethingto the ring because I just shot through the sky like a very fast orange thing. I'm looking down on what I'm pretty sure is the American east coast. I've nearly caught up with the dusk line so its probably evening down there? I can't be sure that the season is the same as back home, so really it could be late afternoon instead. Heck, I don't even know thedate. Add that to the to do list.

There are about eight semi-distinct groups of lights thatmightbe what I'm looking for. Is the Statue of Liberty in New York harbour, or Metropolis harbour? It was in Metropolis harbour in the Christopher Reeves films, but I can't remember for comic canon. I suppose either will do for now.

"Ring. Scan that-"

I make an arc with my right arm.

"-area of coastline. I'm looking for a large robed statue on a small island just off the coast."

"Matches found. Displaying most probable."

A construct forms in front of me. The statue the ring has found certainly looks like the Statue of Liberty, from what I remember from films and television series. As the construct extends down it fills in… oh, what was it called? Staton island? I vaguely remember it from GCSE History. Its as good a match as I'm going to get.

Right! Lets go buy some pants! And some trousers!

Oh right, I'm going to have to get used to American English.

ch 5:

I'm floating over the streets at a height of about ten floors up. The offices on either side are empty so I assume it's fairly late in the evening. A quick fly over revealed no LexCorp building and no Daily Planet so thisprobablyis New York. I don't really want to drop to street level but I've got no idea where the shops I'm looking for are. Probably not in the central business district I suppose.

Not much open at this time of day. Ireallyneed to find out what local time is and get a watch. Finally, I find a place. Not sure if it's open for business, but there are motorbikes and a couple of vans outside and light on inside. I drop down to float just off the ground. I'm glowing orange but I'm not sure if anyone inside has seen me. The sign over the front of the building says 'Bluebeards Bikes' and has pictures of bones, bikes and women wearing snakes. Not the sort of place I'd usually go to. In fact, I've really got no idea what the protocol for this sort of situation is. I think I'll affect the manner of a polite but slightly daft Englishman. Act like this happens all the time -and around here it might-, make the purchases, then leave.

I push open the door.

"Sorry to bother you so late, but I saw a light on."

The man at the till is thin, has dirty blonde hair and is wearing a black t-shirt and jeans. The six other men are wearing quite a lot of leather, denim and metal. And tattoos. And they are all staring at me. Four of them were stacking rectangular wooden boxes in what looks like the workshop area. One is standing by the till and the last was flicking through a magazine by the rack. He drops it.

I'm pretty bad at reading facial expressions, but I think they look astonished. Two are actually gaping. The guy at the till actually looks scared. Right! Right. Super powered person shows up at business premises late at night. I raise my hands in a placatory gesture.

"No, don't worry. Heh. Not a supervillain. I'm just here to shop."

That doesn't seem to have helped. They're actually backing away from me. Which causes one of the ones near the crates to trip over.

"Are you alright?"

He actually cringes.

"I'm fine. I'm fine."

No sense in panicking the man I suppose. Oh, the lid of the crate he tripped over has fallen off, revealing… well, I shouldn't be surprised I suppose. Public gun ownership is supposed to be fairly common in this country. Everyone follows my gaze. I think a couple of them are hyperventilating. Hands drift under jackets.

"Guys, I get it. Second amendment. You're allowed guns. Might want to think about transporting them a bit more carefully though."

I drift back to the desk. The face of the chap there has taken on a rictus grin.

"Sorry for being a nuisance, but I'd really appreciate it if I could speak to your manager."

"Sure. Ah. Sure thing buddy."

He presses a button on his desk and leans forwards.

"Ah, Mitch, could you, er, could you come down here fer a minute?"

"Ooh, is that a shotgun? I didn't realise they made them that short."

"Yeah, no, that's fine,but you need to get down hereman."

"Is that icing sugar?"

A door opens at the top of the stairs built into the side of the room and a overweight man in a black heavy metal themed t-shirt and blue jeans. He's bald, but his beard is trying to make up for it. He's also carrying a revolver in his belt.

Goodness. What must the crime rate be like in this area?

"Lenny, what is Gawds name…"

He sees me and stops moving.

"Hello! I'm orange lantern two eight one four."

I float up to him and hold out my right hand.

"Do I have the pleasure of addressing the manager of this establishment?"

"Ah. Ah, yeah that's, that's me."

I grin, look at my hand, then look back at him. He blinks, and then starts.

"Uh, pleased t', pleased t'meet ya."

He shakes my handvery quickly, like he thinks I'll want to keep it or something. Then he just sort of stands there. What happened to American tradition of good customer service?

"I know that it's rather late, but I'd really like to buy some things. Jacket, trousers, boots… do you sell t-shirts here? A couple of t-shirts. And I'd like to pay in gold, if that's possible."

There is a flicker of a smile and his eyes dart to the till.

"Um, sorry, but we don't take credit card here."

"No no. Not a gold card. The metal. Gold."

"Y'. Y'wanna pay with solid gold?"

"Yes."

His next look is more appraising.

"Sure. Sure buddy, we can do that. You guys"

He indicates the other men.

"Get back to work. Man wants to buy some clothes!"

Mitch was really helpful once he calmed down a bit. I found a jacket, boots and trousers made of… well, I don't know, but it was fairly tough and had some sort of armoured plates. I also found the price tags reassuring. They also had jeans. I have just realised that I don't know my current size. Huh. I float a several black pairs of different waist measurements to my try-on pile. No underwear and no watches, but they do have a small range of offensively embroidered vests and t-shirts. I grab a small selection of grey vests.

"You couldn't point me in the direction of the changing room, could you?"

"We… uh, we don't really have one. But you can use my office."

"Thank you. Ireallyappreciate this. You're being a tremendous help."

I walk up to his office. A couple of chairs, desk, computer, playboy calendar, folders and a few personal photographs. The vests are tight in places I'm not used to my clothing being tight, but it doesn't take long to identify my preferred size. Half a second with the ring eliminates the imagery. My pyjama shorts make getting the jeans on a bit awkward. Turns out that my waist has exactly the same circumference, it's just made of different material. The constant sensation of cloth rubbing against my ring-optimised body is really bringing home the extent of the change. Once I get the boots on I have an ensemble that I could actually walk down the streets in.

"Ring, are you able to store uniforms?"

I remember thinking how convenient lantern Stewarts costume change in Justice League Unlimited was. It would save having to lug heavy bike gear around the place.

"Affirmative."

"Alright, acquire that jacket and those trousers as 'light combat uniform'."

"Unable to comply. Uniform must be worn for subspace storage."

I roll my eyes and put them on. The trousers are even more of a pain than the jeans. But, plus side, I'll never need to struggle to get them on again.

I think that the ring must be controlling my body temperature. I should not be able to wear this much stuff and remain cool.

"Ring, designate this jacket and the outer trousers as 'light combat armour'."

"Designating."

My orange aura pulses. The colour and pattern of the jacket is eliminated. The body of the garment is now dark grey, with an orange lantern sigil across the chest and smaller ones on the shoulders. The trousers are dark grey and unadorned. The ring has also altered the fit: they are now both the perfect size for me.

"And send it to subspace."

My uniform disappears. Myuniform. That feels odd to think. The difference betweenmeand the superhero I'm committing myself to becoming.

I have no idea what I'm doing.

I keep the boots on. I should get some other footwear, or at least thick socks. They certainly aren't comfortable on bare feet. I walk back into the main shop floor. I end up exchanging three gold coins for the uniform, boots, three pairs of vests and jeans, and a pannier to put them in and small holster type bag which straps onto my leg to hold my coins.

They also provide me with some very useful information: the day just starting is the Monday the 5th of July, 2010. Three years and change ago by my reckoning, though I can't think of any way to makethatuseful.

Chapter 6:

5th July 2010

Early morning

I eventually found the New York Public Library by having the ring scan every street sign in the city. I really need to start scanning maps into this thing. I flew past a clock to get here so I actually have the time now. Its six fifteen and the library opens in three hours forty five minutes. I'm reduced to sitting on the steps and waiting.

I've still got the ring on but I seem to have managed to turn down the orange glow. I doubt that I'm in serious danger of getting shot dead due to lack of shielding but I don't know anything about the real New York. Either the New York of my own world or of this one. I do remember reading that compared with the real world comic cities have ridiculously high crime rates; that might explain all of the guns I saw earlier.

Does this library have publicly available computers with internet access? I'd tend to assume so but I've never been into a foreign library before. I assume it won't be free. Will I be able to pay in gold here as well, or will they be sticklers for procedure and force me to find a goldsmith or something? That'll be annoying, but at least I can get directions here.

I wonder if I can access the library computer system from out here? I don't really want to break in. I know Icould, and probably without breaking anything or setting off an alarm… No, I can't take that sort of risk yet. If someone sees an orange light and thinks it's a fire, I'm in serious trouble. Can I send a thin construct in? Should be possib-. Wireless. Would a public library have wireless internet in 2010? Would it be on now? I gesture towards the library with my left hand.

"Ring. Access wireless data network."

"Access available"

That was surprisingly painless. No obvious construct generated, though the ring is glowing a bit. I rotate it on my ring finger so that the sigil side is on the palm side.

"Ring, acquire maps. I need you to have navigational data for this system and everywhere on this planet."

Mapping data acquired. Navigation updated.

"Ring, tell me about Alan Scott.Firstly, does he exist?"

Because I'm boned if he doesn't.

"Alan Scott, born nineteen eighteen. Presently still alive. Currently resident in New York City."

Relief.

"Was a super hero operating under either the name Green Lantern or Sentinel during the nineteen forties?"

"Confirmed. Green Lantern began operation in nineteen forty. No further corroborated sightings since nineteen sixty nine."

"Compare available visual records. Was Alan Scott that Green Lantern?"

"High probability match."

Excellent.

"Ring, give me biographical information."

"Alan Scott, born nineteen eighteen in Gotham General Hospital. Presently still alive. Married Rose Canton in May nineteen forty eight. Marriage annulled in May nineteen forty eight due to insanity. No children recorded. Employment history. Railway engineer nineteen thirty seven to nineteen forty. This represents the most likely time he acquired the power ring and lantern. Reporter for WXYZ Radio nineteen forty. Volunteered for US army nineteen forty one. Released to act as war reporter. Promoted to news manager nineteen sixty five. Promoted to managing director nineteen seventy two. Retired nineteen eighty eight, though still maintains a minority stake. Currently residing is New York City."

"Ring, what was the source of that information?"

"Primary information source is website 'Encarta Populi'. Quoted information cross referenced with at least three other sources."

Looks like Wikipedia exists here, in a somewhat altered form.

"Ring, does the Justice League exist, and if so who are its members?"

"Organisation 'Justice League' exists. Official records state that the Justice League was founded in February two thousand and three, after its original members —Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter—coordinated their efforts to defeat an Appellaxian invasion. Please note that the lantern referred to was not Alan Scott. Current roster also includes Zatara, Captain Atom, Black Canary, an additional Green Lantern, Captain Marvel, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Hawkwoman and Red Tornado."

"Ring: confirm. Just 'Justice League', or 'Justice League of America'?"

"Organisation full title is 'Justice League'. Though current membership comprises thirteen confirmed or probable US nationals to three non US nationals its UN charter makes no mention of nation of origin requirements."

Other important people in the setting next. Clark Kent, check. Bruce Wayne, check. Dianna Prince, not check. I suppose Wonder Woman just never bothered with the alias because she definitely exists. Oliver Queen, check. John Jones, about three hundred possibles and I don't know the character… um, person… well enough to tell if one of them is him. Wally West, check. Oh. He's fifteen. Huh. Looks like this version of DC has the character timelines from.. ah, shit. Before I started reading comics. So, Barry Allen, check. Other Green Lanterns, triple check.

Chara- no,peoplewho interest me next. Right. Theo Adams exists. Alec Holland existed, but there's nothing on Swamp Thing. There's no information on Tefe Holland or Rachel Roth or Timothy Hunter or Gemma Masters. Accomplished Perfect Physician? Nothing, but then I can't remember his actual name. Immortal Man In Darkness? I doubt the Chinese would tolerate that sort of data leak, so no replies doesn't surprise me. A search onSonic Sallyrewards me with a ten second clip of her masturbating with a piece of barbed wire. God, that whole thing is a mess. Worse, I don't think I can fix it without a time machine. One of only two times I ever cried reading a comic book was when her teddy died. Victor Stone is eleven and completely organic. Lonnie Machin is eleven. Precocious little twerp is already fighting the forum wars as 'moneyspider'. John Constantine? Nothing, but I seem to remember that he uses magic to erase his records. Captain Cornwall? Two of them, and the older one is also the face of 'Golden Crust Pasties'. Knight and Squire? The Knight search gets me a series of tabloid drunken celebrity photographs, but none of them are dated this year so hopefully he's on the wagon.

Stopping now before I get TVTropes disease. Oh, too late, there go two hours.

I need to get it into my head that these people are real here. Thinking of them as fictional characters is wrong, and will result in me doing stupid things.

Alright, its half past eight. I don't like phoning people I don't know, but I'm on a clock. How to go about this? Just telling him that I know who he is and that I really want his lantern will most likely result in him hanging up and me being visitedveryquickly by hostile superheroes. These are not people who can afford to take people discovering their identities lightly and once the Guardians get involved, well. Dread to think. I think it'll work better if I can talk to him face to face. Explain things. Lets face it: even at ninety two he can probably punch me through a wall. I can't see him finding me threatening.

"Ring, interface with local telecommunications.Contact Alan Scott's home phone number."

A phone construct -a proper handset, from a phone that had an actual dial- appears in my right hand. Shit. There are a few people around now, and while I suppose they just assumed that I was talking on a mobile before a glowing handset will attract notice. Fortunately, mydesirenot to be noticed causes it to change to a flat mobile handset instead. It rings for a moment, and then:

"This is Alan Scott."

"Oh, um, good morning sir. I do hope I'm not disturbing you?"

"sign Is this about the New York Times subscription again? Because-"

"Oh no! No, um, sorry, um, my name is-"

Can't speak. My mouth and throat freeze. Can't say my name? Think fast.

"-is Colin Underwood. I'm writing an essay on the, the emergence of the American superheroic tradition. You were a reporter for WXYZ Radio during the earliest days of costumed heroes, and were there for the formation of the Justice Society. I'm in New York now. If its not too great an inconvenience, I'd, I'd very much appreciate it if you'd be willing to grant me an interview."

There is a pause.

"Heh. Kinda long way to come for an extra credit assignment, isn't it, son?"

"Well sir, I've never actually been outside Europe before, there was a cheap flight. I'm mostly here for tourism. I had honestly assumed that you still lived in Gotham, or were… well… um… unavailable?"

"Don't worry about it kid. I feel the ol' axles creak every time I take a bend these days. Tell you what; give me an hour to get myself organised and I can speak to you this morning."

"Thank you sir! Oh, wow. This is really great. I, I will see you shortly."

I dismiss the construct. Stage one, alright. Now to work out what to actuallysayto the man.

Chapter 7:

5th July 2010

Morning

Its mid-morning when I reach the front gate of the house ofMr Alan Scott, retired radio journalist, manager and director and former Green Lantern. I've used the time to study his history and rehearse my lines. I do actually want to talk to him about the early days first though. The Justice Society members really kicked the whole costumed crusade thing off. They weren't the first US super heroes -Hugo Danner had that title- but the primary coloured clothing NGO thing is their invention. My home has literally nothing equivalent to the beginning of the DC heroic age, and learning how normal people were affected would probably help me avoid making mistakes. It also isn't really covered in the comics at all. Marvel had that thing with the Bugle photographer but Marvel New York is condensed crazy.

Before I go in:

"Ring. Scan that house for Oan technology."

"Oan technology power source detected. Further materials consistent with known Oan technology also present."

He still has his lantern, then. I don't know if it is the Starheart from the standard DCU, but I should be able to adapt it. If not, then I've still got-

"Ring, state current power level."

"53% power remaining."

That's what I get for wasting that effort on dramatis persona enquiries. Mr Scott's house is a medium sized detached house in Inwood, a place I'd never heard of until I had the ring direct me here. I'm not sure exactly what I expected. Given his former occupation I assume that he's fairly well off but I suppose that since its just him he didn't see the point of getting somewhere bigger. There are a couple of boarders along the edges of the brick paved drive, but they're covered in gravel with only a few medium sized bushes planted at intervals. Adds some colour and I suppose its low maintenance. There's no car in the drive but there is a garage so I suppose it could be in there. The gate blocking the drive has a communication panel on one of the supporting brick posts. I walk over and press the button. I hear a buzz. Ug, if this is anything like the one at work…

"Hello?"

Completely clear sound? And a screen? Mr Scott looks good for his age.

"Good morning Mr Scott! Colin Underwood here. I phoned earlier?"

"Of course. I'll let you in."

There is a soft clank and the gate swings inwards. I walk towards the front door and he opens it before I get there. Blue jeans and pale blue shirt. He still has most of his hair, and it is still visibly blonde. He looks physically fit as well, wrinkles aside. Really, he could pass for a man half his age. He extends his right hand.

"Alan Scott, formerly of WXYZ news."

I stand there for a moment. I am now talking to someone who was a superhero. And was a fictional character. It doesn't fit in my head. I'm just… talking to a nice, retired American man.

"Colin Underwood. Pleasure to meet you."

His handshake is a perfect formal handshake. Not too light like his hand is acting on sufferance or too test-of-strength heavy.

"Please, come on in."

The interior of his house is light and pleasantly decorated. Maybe a bit empty. No, uncluttered. A single man lives here and he keeps it tidy. As he leads me towards the living room I get my first clear look at my revised face in a mirror on the hallway wall. Goodness, I look young. I think it's the lack of stubble, perhaps combined with my memory of the last time my hair was this short. I'm twenty nine and if I told myself I was a decade younger I'd believe me.

He offers me the settee and then settles into an armchair with a view out of the window across what I assume is a park.

"So, where did you want to start?"

Where do I want to start?

"I suppose I should start at the beginning. When did you first become aware that what might be called 'supernatural abilities' were things that actually existed?"

He gazes out of the window for a moment, and strokes his chin.

"Hmm. Well, thinking back, I don't think I was really in any doubt that things like thatcouldhappen. I grew up reading about Hugo Danner's actions in the Great War. 'The Might Colorado.' You know whoHugo Dannerwas?"

"Yessir. The first American superhero. Tremendous physical potence and fortitude."

He face creases.

"You know, ah, I actually met him once. He wasn't exactly… well, the superheroes were active when I started out with WXYZ, they had a clear idea of how they were going about things. They didn't always get thingsright, but that was an execution thing. They never doubted the mission. Despite everything he could do, I don't honestly think Danner ever really knew what he wanted to do with himself. Maybe… he didn't have anyone else is his position. The guys who founded The Society, even when they weren't working together, they knew each other. If things got kinda crazy, they needed to blow off steam with someone who'd been through the same stuff as them, they could. He didn't really have anyone. When he was growing up, there just wasn't anyone like him. That just isn't good for a man, especially not a man with the powers he had."

"Was meeting him the first time you encountered that sort of thing?"

"Oh, no. I didn't actually meet him until the early sixties. He came back to the US after spending some time in Brazil. No, the first time I saw something like that myself, I think it would have been November of nineteen forty. The Green Lantern held a press conference, and did a little demonstration of what his ring could do."

Yeah right.

"Nothing before that? I mean, there's been reports of low level magic use in US cities for, well, always."

"You hear things, maybe even see a thing or two, but you go home and you tell yourself it's all smoke and mirrors. And mostly it is. Someone like The Green Lantern, or the original Flash, or Fate once he came out of hiding? You can't fake that. Its happening right in front of you, and everyone can see it."

"You lived in Gotham pretty much the whole of the time Green Lantern was active there. Did you have a lot to do with him?"

"Not really. I saw him at press conferences, did a couple of interviews. I think we even went to a few of the same parties, but I couldn't say I knew him as a person."

"What sort of impression did you get of him?"

"He was a good man. Polite, maybe a bit stilted. Kinda, not preachy exactly, but a guy who didn't have to bother with a lot of stuff regular folks go through. Heh, why worry about cab fare when you can fly right over? He did a lot of good, and as far as I could tell it never went to his head."

"What do you remember of the public reaction to people like him going public?"

"In my experience people can ignore most anything not happening right in front of them. If a guy uses his powers for good, they'd say more power to him. If he uses them for evil, stick him in irons and throw away the key."

"Was there no negative reaction at all? I mean, the House Committee on Un-American Activities-"

"Jo McCarthy was a son of a bitch, if you'll pardon me. There was never any public support for that sort of thing."

Ooh, that's a sore point.

"Did you cover the hearings at all?"

"Wasn't my beat. Just as well, really. If I'd been there, they'd probably a'ended up dragging me out, kicking and shouting."

"Did you cover the formation of the Justice Society?"

"At the time I didn't have the pull to get that gig. Wrote a couple a'articles about them later. I think the paper put all that stuff online if you care to look for it."

"Do you remember the group disbanding?"

He seems to sag slightly.

"Yeah."

"Do you know why?"

"No, but if I had to guess? Wonder Woman never got old. Come to think of it I don't suppose Red Tornado did either. But for the other guys? You're in your twenties, you're full of vinegar. You have super powers as well? There's nothing you can't do. Then, you hit thirty, forty. Maybe you got a wife, kids. A mortgage. A few injuries that keep you up some nights. You don't wake up quite so early and you try not to stay up so late. You want to fit in something like the Society as well as all'a the other stuff you gotta do? Good luck."

He looks at the ground, and sighs.

"Ah, it was a shame, though. They still got together sometimes, after that. Big cases. Mordru in sixty nine. Left the office to report on that one myself."

"What do you think of the Justice League?"

He perks right up.

"Those people, it makes me feel good just knowing that sorta thing can still happen, you know? I'd heard of The Batman before they all got together. Can't say I thought much of him. Heh, if it works out like that, I wouldn't mind being proven wrong more often. I didn't know much about Superman, at the time. Watching him since, he seems like a really good guy. Can't quite place his accent. Wonder Woman looks much the same as ever."

Wistful? Well, not that surprising really. Ah, time to get to the point. I feel a bit bad for misleading him like this. How to lead in?

"What do you think happened to Green Lantern's equipment? I used to assume that the first new Green Lantern was using it, but then the others turned up."

"Got me. Maybe Mordru destroyed it. Maybe its in a crawlspace or a loft somewhere. Hey, maybe he put it down somewhere and forgot about it. Happens when you get older."

Fine, don't make this easy.

"Mr Scott, may I be frank with you?"

He waves a hand.

"Go right ahead."

"Mr Scott, I believe that you are in fact the Green Lantern of that era."

"Oh? And what makes you think that?"

"Because your hair, build, voice and presence in Gotham City match that of the Green Lantern perfectly. Also, because my power ring has detected an Oan power source fifteen meters in that direction."

He gives me a measured look.

"Your 'power ring'?"

I raise my left hand, palm open.

"Ring, light combat armour please."

A wave of orange light passes over me, and in its wake my protective gear reappears. Mr Scott settles back in his chair.

"Alright son, you've been playing me long enough. What do you actually want?"

"That's simple, Mr Scott.I want your lantern."


	2. 8

**Chapter 8**

**5th July 2010**

**Morning**

**"Is that right?"**

**"Yes. I was thinking… five hundred million dollars? Ten percent deposit by the end of the week, balance within two years?"**

**"I'm.. y… you want tobuythe lantern?"**

**"Yessir."**

**I think I gobsmacked him, but his expression doesn't actually change much. The only things moving are his eyes and eyelids and he blinks.**

**"If the amount is insufficient-"**

**"Its not theamount, son."**

**He rubs his brow.**

**"What..? What exactly do you intend to do with it?"**

**"Well, first I have to check that it can be made compatible with this ring. Then, recharge. I don't really have any definite plans after that."**

**"Running low on power?"**

**"The asteroid mining I budgeted for, but you'd be surprised how much power internet background research can take. Ring, how much left?"**

**"Fifty two percent power remaining."**

**His eyes twitch.**

**"Your ring can talk. So you're, what, a member of theorangelantern corps?"**

**"That's right."**

**"They didn't give you a lantern of your own?"**

**"I know, right! If I'd been anywhere but Earth I could have been in serious trouble! As it is, this ring is tied to the central power battery on Okaara. Its far too far to commute."**

**I know that people avoid looking at peoples faces when they are thinking. So much of the run time on the human brain goes into analysing other people's expression, you get measurably dumber when you look at one. He's currently studying his ceiling.**

**"Theoretically speaking, if I were not prepared to part with it, what would you do?"**

**"I'd try to persuade you to change your mind. If you were adamant… I'd just have to try somewhere else. Look, I'm on a bit of a deadline here. If you could give me some sort of indication-"**

**"Would you mind if I made a phone call?"**

**"Of course not."**

**He gets up and walks out of the room.**

**I think this is going reasonably well. I couldn't predict exactly how he'd react, and he seems more confused than alarmed or irritated. I had no way to tell how big a deal breaking his secret identity would be. I still don't, really. Surely everyone who had a personal grudge against him would be either dead or in their dotage by now? Not Mordru, obviously. Never found him interesting as character but he was certainly powerful. Vandal Savage is probably around as well… and I didn't bother to look up either of them, damn it!**

**Mr Scott didn't strike me as the sort to have wireless internet, and stealing someone else's access while in his house didn't seem like a good idea.**

**I can just about hear Mr Scott's voice outside the room. Can't make out what he's saying. Tone seems to be conversational, with occasional rises for emphasis. Does he have a mobile? I would have guessed not, but maybe I'm being unfair to old people. If he's standing just the other side of the door, then it must be a mobile as there wasn't a phone in the hall. Or… I know that my ring enhanced by vision when it altered my body. Is my hearing better? I didn't think so, but if Mr Scott is a couple of rooms away…**

**The conversation stops. I hear another door open and close, then nothing. That's a bit rude. I get up and walk over to the window. Nice day out. Reasonable temperature -though that could be the ring-, grass in good condition, trees swaying in the wind and a nice view, even. The trees in the parks Mum used to take my sister and I to when we were little were usually packed together into areas of woodland. Here, one or two would stand in isolation with large gaps between them.**

**"Proximity alert! Will detected!"**

**That explains where he went. Understandable that he'd want his ring as well, I suppose.**

**I watch a family walk down what appears to be the main path through the park until the door behind me opens. I turn to see Mr Scott holding his right hand at chest level and flexing his fingers.**

**"Been a while since I've worn this."**

**His ring is larger than I was expecting. Certainly larger than mine. I don't remember what his looked like in the comics. Didn't he just cut a circle of metal off the Starheart container? This one sort of looks like someone stuck a tiny model lantern on it. It actually looks cheap and a bit silly until he moves the funnel to an angle at which I can see the glowing green core.**

**"Sixty nine, you said?"**

**"Hm? Oh, no. A few times since then. Not exactly active duty…"**

**He looks slightly distracted as he sits back in his chair. I stand at ease -thank you Scout Association- facing him.**

**"Can I ask if you've made a decision?"**

**"You know, I've had people after my ring before. Criminals, super villains, the occasional government official. I've been offered bribes more times than I care to remember. I honestly don't thinkanyonehas ever tried to just… just… tried to buy me out."**

**"Is that a 'no'?"**

**"It's a… it's a… God damn it, what do you want me to say?"**

**He lets out a short laugh. Bemusement to amusement? I'll take that. He rubs his forehead with his right hand, then stops and looks at the ring again.**

**"So what does this…. orange corps of yours do, anyway?"**

**Sit in a cave full of precious materials and eat rotten food? Go completely mad? Turn people into constructs?**

**"There are few restrictions on my personal conduct. I am empowered to act in the best interests of my sector, as I see them."**

**"So what exactly is the difference between what your people do and what the Green Lantern Corp does?"**

**"I have a greater degree of personal freedom while they are limited to law enforcement. A Green Lantern might prevent someone destroying a bridge, or repair it if they weren't fast enough to protect it. They won't ever use their ring to build one, even if the greater good could be served by doing so. An Orange Lantern should never be expected to clamp down theirdesireto help people."**

**"That so? And what would they say, if I asked them?"**

**"They'd say, 'Orange Lantern, what are you talking about?'"**

**"Not so well known?"**

**"There are not many of us, at present."**

**I don'tthinkany of that was a lie.**

**"The Green Lantern Corps is run by the Guardians of the Universe, right? Who runs your corps?"**

**I don't actually know. Should probably check.**

**"The technology employed in power rings was developed on Maltus. When the various political factions of that world experienced, well, 'irreconcilable differences', they agreed to separate. The Guardians -who favour to green light- went to Oa. The Controllers -who favour orange- remained behind. In terms of ideology the two groups seem rather similar, but when things get tense… tiny differences…"**

**He nods.**

**"Creating a green construct is an exercise in willpower, mental focus. Is that how your ring works?"**

**"No. The orange light responds to avarice."**

**That didn't go down well. He slides to sit on the edge of his chair and leans forwards.**

**"What exactly do you mean by that?"**

**"The more I want the construct, the more I want the outcome the construct is being created to achieve, the stronger the construct."**

**"And if you don't want it all that much?"**

**"Then it would be very difficult for me to act. With the ring at least. In extremis, the ring might actually prevent me from acting."**

**My eyes drop to the carpet. I don'tknowfor sure that can happen, but it seems logical. Might actually have to watch out for it.**

**"That sounds unreliable."**

**"I… I suppose it is. I haven't had a problem so far, though."**

**"So what happens if you're short of cash, you walk past a jewellery store, see a valuable diamond? You don't have to will taking it."**

**"Money's not really my thing. If I need to buy something, well, I mentioned before that I'd done some asteroid mining?"**

**I take a single platinum coin out of my leg bag and toss it to him.**

**"I'm not sure exactly how much its worth, but I don't imagine funds are really going to be an issue."**

**He nods, turning it over in his hand.**

**"And if you walked down a beach, saw a pretty girl..?"**

**Is he? Shit, he's implying…**

**"I'm not that sort of person!"**

**"You're a young man. Understandably, you have urges in that direction. Most people have good enough control of themselves that they aren't a problem, but you've got a power ring on your finger that responds to your desires, and from what you've told me, the stronger the better. And you want me to give you a tool for recharging it.Understand why I have concerns about this."****Fuck you old man.****"That could only happen if my sex drive completely overwhelmed my desire for social ingroup affirmation and intrapsychic rule compliance reward!"****"So what do you want to use it for?"****I don't know! I'm too angry about you calling me a rapist in waiting to think clearly!****"This world is dangerous. I don't mean getting hit by a car or being mugged or something. People deal with roads all the time and petty theft is well within the abilities of police. But if a fire throwing metahuman or if some rampaging monster or alien warlord or whoever it is today starts smashing people for fun, peoplecan'tdeal with that. At Earth's current level of technology there are things most people are not safe from. I can, I can use this ring to make them safe."****"And why does it have to be you?"****"Because I went to sleep in a nicesafeworld with no aliens, no magic and nosuperhumansand I woke up IN SPACE, over thismadhouse, with this ring on my finger. And I knowexactlyhow dangerous it is around here with your giant robots and super powered psychopathsand the only thing that makes me feel even slightly safe is this ring. Your lantern represents the best way for me to keep it charged; if you'll sell it to me or lend it or rent it, then great! If not,fine. It's your property, but I would appreciate an answernowso that I can try and make other arrangements."****Then the doorbell rang.****"Mind if I get that?"****"Oh, go ahead. Its your house."****He walks out of the room and I try to calm down. Why the hell did he do that? I try to listen to the hall but all I can hear is my own pulse. I sit down heavily on the settee and make fists. My aura is back at full intensity. I've actually formed a construct chest plate. I can see it as a definite outline within the glow. Hooray for conscious ring control. Calm, calm. I run the first part of the first mission of Goldeye for the Nintendo 64 through my mind as a relaxation exercise. It worked during my MRI scan. Step forwards, free aim at the guard's head, fire once or twice depending on difficulty setting, rush across the open area to the tower, shoot the patrolling guard and then move around the back of the tower to shoot the guard against the wall. Up the tower, pick up the sniper rifle and kill the two guards in the tunnel. And now I'm feeling better.****Then Mr Scott walks back in with Wonder Woman.****Leotard with star pants, golden tiara and double-ues, red body section. Boots. Goodness, I don't think I've ever seen a woman so muscular before. The breadth of her shoulders and the definition of the muscles of her arms are really quitepleasantlyimpressive. Her armour was made by Hephaestus, wasn't it? It isn't skin tight, there's definite depth to it. The outer layer is some sort of red material but I think I can see tiny threads of silver…****"Yes?"****Wonder Woman just caught me checking her out.Think fast!****"Bracers. Lasso. No sword or axe. Standard armour, rather than civilian clothes or the golden plate. A professional occasion, but not one where heavy resistance was expected. I'm afraid that I don't know you well enough to draw further conclusions."****I rise and meet her eyes.****"Good morning your highness. Orange lantern two eight one four at your service. It is my pleasure to meet you."**

**I perform a shallow bow. IthinkI got away with it.**


	3. 9

5th July 2010

Morning

She gives me a measured look, and then turns to Mr Scott.

"I hadn't realised you were training an apprentice."

"I wasn't." / "He's not."

We speak at the same time, and exchange glances. I make a 'go on' gesture with my hands.

"Colin here just made an offer on my lantern."

"An… offer?"

"Half a billion dollars."

Oh, so that's what Wonder Woman's does-not-compute face looks like. It's a lot like her normal face.

"I mean, you have these things lying up there in the loft and then some bright young thing comes around and tells you they're worth a lot of money. I wasn't even insuring it!"

"No, I don't suppose you were. Alan, what is happening?"

Standing at ease again, I watch Mr Scott as he talks. Less chance of looking at the wrong thing.

"The boy here phones me, says that he want to interview me for a paper on super heroes due to my work as a journalist. He comes over, asks some questions, then flashes his power ring and asks to buy my lantern."

"How did he-"

She turns back to me, her expression hardening.

"How did you know Alan was the original Green Lantern?"

"This ring can detect power lanterns. There aren't that many to choose from. Plus, the two of them look identical. Tiny mask and a different parting?"

Mr Scott actually winces.

"How did you get a power ring?"

"No idea. I woke up this morning… no, hang on, last night, and there it was."

I raise my left palm. She looks at it carefully.

"What, exactly, can you do with it?"

"So far, flight, environmental protection, scanning, cleaning, construct creation, data analysis and this rather nifty thing where it can store my clothes."

"Cleaning?"

I face-shrug.

"The moon's dusty."

She goes to speak, pauses, and concedes the point. Her attention shifts back to Mr Scott.

"Do you plan on giving it to him?"

Million dollar question. I'd certainly like to know.

"It occurs to me that giving him my lantern would make him a very powerful young man."

"That's certainly.. true..?"

"And I'm certainly not letting someone like that loose without proper training and supervision."

Did he just say I could have the lantern if she agrees to take me on as 'Wonder Lantern'? She doesn't seem too impressed by the idea.

"I'm sure that you could show him the basics. Once he has been active for a while I can help him apply for a position in the League."

I raise my right hand. I don't remember a lot of what I learned in primary school but that one hasreallystuck with me.

"I'm sorry your highness, but that won't work. The lantern can remain green, or I can try to turn it orange. It can't be both. One of us will be out of power in a day or so."

Her jaw tightens.

"Colin, would you excuse us for a few minutes?"

You'reseriously excluding mefrom this?

"Oh right. Adults are talking."

I put on my chirpy Edwardian ten year old voice and make the reins holding gesture.

"I think I'll go and play in the park.Do let me know when its time for tea!"


	4. 10

5th July 2010

Morning

Despite wearing the ring, I decide to climb the tree the normal way. Alright, the ring provides added safety, but Ilikeclimbing trees. Weren't many trees I could do this with when I was little. They were all the wrong shape or size. At this time of day the park is basically empty. The view over the green fields towards the coast is soothing. I changed back into normal clothes before leaving Mr Scott's house, though my vest appears to have acquired a lantern sigil in the centre. My panniers are on the ground at the tree's base.

Enough woolgathering. I still don't have a lantern. The local superheroes know I exist and its pure good fortune that I'm not sitting in a science cell right now. From what Mr Scott told me I assume that Wonder Woman was part of the Justice Society in this time line, rather than it being Queen Hippolyta. Would she be prepared to tutor me? If I was a woman, probably. She took Supergirl on after all. But then, I'm not really a melee fighter, even taking my new buff body into account. As far as I'm concerned that's a silly way to use a ring. Would Mr Scott be any better? I don't remember him using particularly complex constructs in the comics and its not like him teaching me how to focus my will would achieve anything useful.

"Colin?"

I look down. I guess Wonder Woman finished talking to Mr Scott. She's also switched to civilian clothing; blue jeans and a leather jacket obscuring her distinctive 'work clothes'. Does she keep clothing in Mr Scott's house? Because there's no way those are his.

"Yeah, look, Colin Underwood isn't my actual name."

"No?"

"Dads first name, Nans maiden name. I don't seem to be able tosaymy actual name."

"Really?"

Scepticism scepticism.

"Observe."

I start, but before I can get out the first phoneme my throat locks.

"Kkkkkkrrrr. Hhhhhucccccccccc."

Disbelief to puzzlement.

"Can you still think about you name?"

Can I? I try to bring it to the front of my mind-

"Woah!"

I nearly fell off the branch. I think I blacked out for a moment. My name is unspeakable and unthinkable. That's weird and a bit scary. I scoot along the branch and clamber down, trying not to think too much.

"My lasso can compel honesty. If the effect is caused by some sort of magic then it should remove the spell."

I slouch against the tree.

"Unless whoever did it was clever enough to put in a backup. Something along the lines of 'if the spell fails for any reason, detonate his head'. Ithinkits possible to survive your own death with a power ring, but you really only get one chance to learn."

"Power rings don't make you immortal."

Doesn't sound like she believes me.

"There was azombie Green Lanternfor a while. I'm not sure that he was fully functional, mentally, but he could put himself back together after being torn apart."

"A zombie Green Lantern."

"There's all sorts of Green Lanterns. Mathematical equation Green Lantern. Robot Green Lantern. Squirrel Green Lantern. Plant Green Lantern. Planet Green Lantern. One of them was a zombie. I don't remember why."

She dismisses the matter with a shake of her head.

"Alan tells me that he hasn't actually seen you create a construct yet."

"I made an armoured plate earlier when he suggested I could… that this ring could be dangerous."

"Apparently he didn't notice. Would you mind showing me?"

"Yes, actually. Constructs take power, and I still don't have a charge point."

"I… have a decision to make, and I need to know for certain that you have a power ring and that this isn't trick of some kind."

How about a different ring function?

"What language do you hear me speak?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Power rings have a universal translator function. Your first language would be close to Classical Greek, right?"

She thinks, and then reaches up behind her ear and presses something. When she speaks, her accent is different.

"Alright, say something."

What to say? Aaagh! I've spoken English my whole life, then someone asks that…I want something that sounds good.Ah, an idea… Deep breath:

"I am the very model of a modern lantern warrior,

I'm combination futurist, combatant and explorier,

I'll rewrite every schema pattern, thought and every moral code,

So I may better serve the sector in which I make my abode."

She raises an eyebrow, and smirks.

"Explorier?"

"I had a minute!"

"The translator is working."

"Really? 'Cause I'm pretty sure Classical Greek doesn't have words for some of those things."

"Themysciran Greek isn't exactly Classical Greek. I heard the tune and the words, though your ring wasn't able to make the words rhyme in both languages."

I turn my left hand palm up and stroke it with my right index finger.

"Don't listen to the mean woman. You did an excellent job."

A smile, and her hand pushes her hair back.

"You told Alan that you come from a parallel universe."

"Yep."

"Why do you think that?"

I shrug.

"Some places that should be there aren't. Some things exist that shouldn't."

I realise that I'm talking to a golem. Clay given life by both Titanic and Olympian magic, right?

"When you're out of my field of vision, I could be back home. Er, I've never actually been to my parallel's New York but-"

I wave at the scenery.

"-it all looks pretty normal. Then I look at my finger, and there's a magic alien ring. I look at you and there's a magical demigoddess. This is… this shouldn't be possible, but its happening."

"Do you think it might be something else? If your mind has a block preventing you from using your own name…"

"If I was crazy, how would I tell?"

"I just meant that your memory of events might have been altered."

"Its possible, but, why? And anyway, these are complex memories I'm talking about, not just a couple of events. Wouldn't that be difficult to create artificially?"

She folds her arms across her chest.

"I only have your word for it that any of this is happening."

"True. Hmh. One of the Greenies could probably track me. Follow the orange trail back to where I first appeared. If it starts suddenly in space and there's no sign of faster than light travel, that would imply I appeared as I said I did."

"Or teleported."

"Pretty much every form of teleportation I know of leaves signs that a power ring can detect."

"Your world has teleportation?"

"No. I asked the ring about it."

We stand in silence for several moments.

"What did you and Mr Scott decide?"

She shifts her weight slightly.

"He wants to make sure that you learn to use that ring responsibly."

"And I'd like to learn to use this ring responsibly."

We both stare at the ground for a moment. I rub my face with both hands.

"Alright. Mr Scott will only give me the lantern if I get supervised training. You can provide that training, but the problems involved in dealing with people in our weight class mean you don't want to risk it with someone you don't know. What do I have to do to convince you to take the risk?"

"I'm not sure."

"I could just have taken it, you know? He doesn't normally wear his ring. I could have just locked on, ploughed through the house and been on the other side of the galaxy before anyone could have stopped me."

She shrugs.

"So, you're not a thief."

"I need the lantern.Take it away and I've got maybe a day of use left before I need a new power point."

"And?"

"Orange is the colour of avarice. Iwantthe lantern more than anything you're likely to ask in return. So, ask.What do you want?"

"If avarice is that important to you, why would you stay true to your word?"

"Same reason I don't steal. Compared to what I lose, what I gain, it doesn't make sense."

She looks back towards Mr Scott's house, then back to the ground. Its not working! Wait, something… I don't know if this is…

"Back home, we don't have… gods. Not ones that interact with the world in any measurable fashion. Ha, I guess this place is going to be hard on my atheism. I remember hearing a radio program about ancient Greek religion."

"If the gods do not exist in your world then I doubt it would be accurate."

"Mm. One of the things it said was that an oath was considered most sacred when sworn to Gaea."

Nowshe's looking at me. Anger? No, maybe alarm?

"Would I be right in assuming that the consequences of breaking that sort of oath would be a bit more-"

I make a circling motion with my right hand.

"-apparent, here?"

"Not if you just spoke it. But the consequences of breaking a sanctified oath to Gaea are utterly devastating."

"Sufficiently devastating that you wouldn't worry about me breaking my word?"

I surprised her. I think she's actually thinking about it.

"It… it would depend on what exactly you agreed to."

I shrug, raising my palms to the sky.

"What do you want me to agree to?"

For a moment I think that she is walking away, but she turns back. Wonder Woman is pacing? At least she's taking it seriously. I can feel myself relaxing as I get closer togetting hold of the lantern.

"You'll have to agree to follow orders."

"Whose?"

"Mine, or those of a single individual I designate."

"Not suicidal orders. I don't mind danger, but I'm not dying because someone told me to."

She nods.

"Alright. You also can't leave the planet."

!My coins!

"Can we make it star system? I'm not planning to do a runner but Idoneed to practise space flight. Oh, voluntarily, voluntarily leave. Just in case I'm forced to."

She thinks, trying to spot a loophole I'm not trying to create.

"Acceptable."

"For how long? I mean, if you still can't trust me after working with me for six months..?"

"A year. One year from the time you make the oath."

To quote Urdnot Wrex, worse than I'd hoped, better than I'd feared.

"One other thing. I want to be able to nullify the oath by giving up the lantern. Returning it to Mr Scott."

Eyes narrow, suspicions raised again. I raise my hands.

"It might not even be possible for me to use it. I don't want to be stuck following orders with no ring."

She doesn't seem happy about it, but it isn'tthatunreasonable. A shallow nod. A years freedom for the freedom of the universe. It's a fair trade.

"So, do I need to go somewhere in particular, or can I just do this here?"

"There's only one place to sanctify this kind of oath. We'll need to go to the Temple of Gaea. On Themyscira."

Oooh. Not sure…

"Am… I… allowed… there..?"

"In the Temple itself, yes, if I am with you. Nowhere else. It should be empty at this time of day, but I will make sure of it before calling for you."

Right then. I stand up.

"Are we flying there under our own power?"

"No, we'll take my jet. Follow me."

And she flies into the air, towards Manhattan Island. No force field, no engine thrust, just 'fuck you, physics'. That's just…

Iretrievemy armour, pick up my bag and follow.


	5. 11

5th July 2010

Morning

Apparently Staten Island isn't the thing with the Statue of Liberty on it. I didn't even have to ask the ring; I looked at the Statue as we flew over it andwantedto know and I suddenly knew. The island with the Statue on it is called Liberty Island. Staten Island is a lump of city just off the coast, connected by bridge -which we also flew over- and ferry -which we flew near.-. Wonder Woman didn't seem bothered about people seeing us, and I doubt they could identify us at that distance.

We aren't next to each other, I'm definitely following her. After we took off I copied her swimmer style flying position before realising that for me there was no advantage in doing so. I tried creating a chair construct to sit on and then a lilo to lay on, but both felt weird so I'm just Black Adamming it and flying standing straight up. Still feels a bit strange. I suppose after so much exposure to the swimmer pose it just seems like 'the way'. While my environmental shield prevents me from feeling the wind my escort... no, bad word… guardian? From the way her hair is moving I think she's getting full air resistance. Probably why she hasn't tried to speak to me since we took off. Must make having hair that long really awkward.

I spot the WayneTech logo on the side of the building from the beginning of the upper bay. Do normal world businesses have signs that huge? Hm, LexCorp and Wayne Enterprises. I wonder if there are more large family owned businesses here, or the comics just focus on oddities? As we approach the building we gain height, coming in from about twenty meters above the roof. It looks empty, until I had the ring scan it and give me an augmented reality view. I see its outline, picked out in orange. That's aninvisible jet. There is an invisible jet parked on the roof. Are invisible things common around here? Amazons never struck me as technophiles but I suppose the purple ray? Was that a technological artefact or an arcane device? The invisibility might be magic in origin but I can clearly see the jet engines.

As Wonder Woman drops swiftly towards the roof surface I sink slower and circle around the plane, before approaching the side door.

"You can see it, can't you?"

"I have a power ring."

I can see outlines, but I'm not an engineer and I'm not sure what some of the things I see are. I land and turn to her.

"I'm curious, how does… what?"

She's giving me an odd look.

"Your eyes are glowing."

I raise my right hand and hold it over my right eye. Can't see any orange glow.

"Yes? Don't the Green Lantern's eyes glow?"

"Human eyes aren't normally orange."

She floats over to the outline of the plane and places her right hand on the hull. The door extrudes slightly and then splits apart, sliding to both sides of the aperture. There is now a weird disconnect between the exterior surface which looks like an orange ghost-jet and the inside which I can see clearly.

"The flight should take about four hours."

She steps inside and head to the cockpit. I follow her. The inside is part aeroplane and part spaceship. As I am qualified to fly neither I settle for sitting in one of the passenger seats behind the pilot's position which Wonder Woman has occupied. I have no idea what any of this stuff does so after I buckle up I place my hands in my lap. Buttons, switches and dials run down each side of the interior in a way that can't be good design, ergonomically speaking. How is the pilot supposed to reach them all? Is this supposed to be a team thing? I glance out of the canopy and… what! We've already lifted off? This thing either has amazing inertial dampeners or an anti gravity generator. Come to think of it, given how much this must weigh the roof we were on must bereallystrong. I do hear it and feel it when the main engines ignite. I've been on a plane twice in my entire life before this so I don't have much to compare it to. Beats Easy Jet, but when you're one hundred and eighty five centimetres tall cattle class is not a fun way to fly.

Hang on. Wonder Woman can fly, and the League have teleporters, don't they?

"I was just wondering, is there a special reason why we're taking the plane?"

"Its cruising speed is faster than mine, and you were worried about running out of ring power."

"Oh. Well, thank you for the consideration. Um, I was sort of under the impression that the League had teleporters?"

She pauses. I suppose it probably isn't public knowledge and she can't be sure that she can trust me not to tell people I shouldn't until I make the oath.

"No. The League uses a network of zeta beams. They need a terminal at each end, and there isn't one on Themyscira."

Zeta beams? Where have I… Adam Strange! His father in law -Sardath? Zardack?- used them for long distance teleportation from Earth to Rann.

"Is that a Rannian technology?"

"Hm?"

"I'm most familiar with zeta beams as a Rannian technology. Did the League trade for it?"

"The zeta beam network the League uses was originally created by a team led by Doctor Erdel."

I can't see her face and she can't easily turn to look at me. And not just because we're flying, these chairs don't swivel. But I think I just made a wrong-universe statement. It sounds like either Doctor Erdel was a fake, or the technology was developed very differently here than in standard DC universe. I've just demonstrated a counterfactual belief that no one from here or in my position should have. I'm not sure that she'll think anything of it beyond 'he's talking nonsense', but if this gets back to someone like Batman I'm going to have some uncomfortable explaining to do.

"What did you mean by 'Rannian'?"

Oh dear.

"It's a planet, Rann, I'm not actually sure what sector, humanoid population, space faring. I know they use zeta beams but I suppose you just, you know, parallel development."

Local zeta beams sound much less sophisticated than boom tubes. Lonnie Machin was able to put one of those together in his mid teens. I need to see about making contact with him before then. Don't think I'll try his brain machine, though.

"I though you arrived on our world last night?"

"I spent a couple of hours going through the ring's database. I didn't think so many alien species would actually look human."

"You'd be surprised."

Thankfully, she stops asking. I take a look out of the canopy window again. Clouds and sky. From where I'm sitting I can't look towards the ground. Which way would we go? Straight over the Atlantic ocean? Would going over the pole be faster? I've looked at plenty of maps but I can't remember the last time I saw a three dimensional representation of the world.

Nothing for me to do, and I don't want to risk saying something stupid again. I close my eyes. The chair is comfortable.


	6. 12

5th July 2010

Wsfgh, sleeping, go away.

"… Tower to Wonder Woman. Watch Tower to Wonder Woman."

The position of my head and the drool on my chin suggests that I've been asleep. Not tied up and the ring's still there, so score one for trust.

"I'm here J'onn, what is it?"

"We're getting reports from the Greek media that a cruise ship has been taken captive near the island of Santorini. Since you are in the area I would like you to handle it."

This is actual superhero stuff. I'm actually going to… Ireallyhope its more straight forward than it looks.

"Anything special about the attackers?"

"Local media claims that messages from the passengers described them as 'harpyia'. Apparently they flew onto the ship from a small island and forced the crew to steer it into a natural harbour."

Harp. Did he say harpies?

"How many people on board?"

"Seven crew and approximately eighty passengers."

"Can I assume that they haven't made any demands?"

"Indeed, though I am uncertain as to how they would if they wanted to."

Ring,tell me how much power you have left, but do it in my head.

Fifty one percent power remaining.

Hearing someone else's thoughts in your head is weird, especially when they aren't a person.

"I'll handle it. ETA seventeen minutes."

"Good luck."

I hear Wonder Woman mutter something. I try to work out how to approach this.

"Aaaaaare you going to want me to participate in this?"

"You're awake then."

"Its been a long and strange day. Uw, sorry for leaving you with no one to talk to."

"It wasn't a problem."

Well, thanks.

"Whether I want you for back up depends on the harpies. Kidnapping is out of character for them. You'll accompany me when I go and talk to them. If it came to a fight, would you be able to shield the hostages?"

I have no sodding idea.

"Probably? I can certainly create a shield, but I don't want to guarantee how long I could sustain it for."

"It'll have to do. I'll drive them away from the boat, you shield it while the crew get it underway."

"You wanted to talk to them first?"

"They know me, and they know what will happen if they try to fight me. I should be able to persuade them to back down."

Harpies are intelligent then, rather than being big birds.

"Any idea why they've done this now?"

"Not really."

"What sort of condition should I expect the hostages to be in?"

"Scared. There may be some minor injuries, but I doubt it."

"What do the harpies usually eat?"

"They don't eat people, if that's what you're asking."

"No, I mean, my world doesn't have harpies but I've seen fantasy art. They don't have hands, right?"

"No, but they have a high degree of fine motor control with their claws."

"They can't farm on a tiny island. So, what, they fish?"

"Mostly, yes."

Long chain omega 3 fatty acids. That explains the intelligence.

"With nets, or with their claws?"

"I haven't spent a lot of time observing them."

I could hear the eyes roll.

"Have they lived in this area for long?"

"At least as long as humans have."

"Greek islands, or this particular island?"

"Does it matter?"

"Maybe? You said this was out of character. Something has caused a change in their behaviour. There's no point freeing one group of hostages if they just grab another boat after we leave."

"I suppose. I'm notsure, but as far as I remember, there has always been a colony around Santorini."

"Do they get on well with the locals. Erm, local humans?"

"They don't usually have much to do with them."

"Do the humans know they're there?"

"Why wouldn't they? It isn't a secret."

"If they don't interact with them they might have sort of fallen out the of public consciousness."

"How could anyone forget the existence of an entire intelligent species?"

"If no one has seen them since before there were photographs, and all people have to go on are old stories, really easily."

She pauses.

"Do you think the ship was taking tourists to look for them?"

"It's a possibility. Are they used to boats? Modern boats?"

"I assume so. The area is sailed fairly heavily. They'd have seen them from a distance, at least."

"That would be a fairly recent thing, wouldn't it?"

"Forty or fifty years is hardly recent."

"But, more, recently?"

"Probably."

"Could they be driving away the fish?"

"I wouldn't have though so. There would need to be a lot of boats to have that sort of effect."

"Wait. Who controls the fishing around here?"

"The Greek government."

"So the harpies don't control the waters around their own island?"

"I... I suppose not."

That's bullshit.

"Shouldn't they? They've been here longer than modern Greece."

"If the Greek people have forgotten they exist, I expect the Greek government doesn't care either."

"Can we… do something about that?"

A moments silence.

"What exactly do you have in mind?"

I don't have anything in mind.

"Some sort of injunction? Get the courts to stop boats coming here until they can sort out who controls what?"

"You want to help the kidnappers?"

"Yeah, actually. If they're feeling threatened the best thing to do is to stop threatening them. If it actually is a territory problem then its reasonable to help them sort it out."

"Even if they have a valid complaint, that doesn't justify attacking innocent holiday makers."

"And what would happen if a boat load of tourists turned up uninvited on Themyscira? Most places have laws against trespassing. Besides, we don't know that they've actually hurt anyone."

She's quiet for another moment.

"Alright, I'll ask about it when I speak to their leaders. But I still want you looking after the tourists."

"Having someone who can tell them all in their own language what's going on will probably calm them down."

"We might still have to fight our way out if the courts won't cooperate."

"If that happens, you could always ask Queen Hippolyta to annex the place."

"What!"

"If the Greek government does that then they've demonstrated that they don't care about the rights of their nonhuman citizens. It would be perfectly justified."

"I. Ivery much doubtit will come to that."

"Oh, do you have a satellite phone I can borrow? Some of them might want to phone home. It'll probably help."

"There's, there should be one in the back."

I release myself from the seat and carefully walk towards the rear section of the aircraft, keeping my hands away from anything technical looking. Now I have to work out how to explain to a crowd of tourists that we're not actually going to rescue them. We're going to leave that to the lawyers.

There is something very wrong with this idea.


	7. 13

5th July 2010

Evening

I sit on a knoll at the end of the beach and watch as the children play on the sand with some of the braver harpy… chicks? Fledglings? Not sure. The game seems to involve throwing a long piece of driftwood and then jumping after it with your feet together. Its early evening, and with the sun behind the island the lights from the ship cast long shadows. I chuckle as a couple of the parents overseeing their children accidentally wander right up to a couple of harpies watchingtheiroffspring. The humans start to apologise before they realise who they are talking to, and then back awkwardly away.

I hear two feet come down on the grass behind me.

"I see that you've managed to keep things calm."

"You should have been here earlier; I made a giant orange Ferris Wheel. The harpy chicks had no idea what it was. It was hilarious: they kept trying to land on it, and then squawking when it moved."

Wonder Woman walks past me. She's wearing some sort of lavender coloured robe or dress. I guess it's Themysciran formal wear.

"Why are their heads glowing orange?"

"I extended the ring's translation effect. There's five or six human languages, plus whatever the harpies speak. I thought it would make it easier for them to get along."

"It would seem to have worked."

I lay back, folding my hands behind my head. Driftwood abandoned, offspring of two species dash along the shore.

"So? How'd it go?"

"You've certainly made Stellios, Penna and Takes very happy."

"Who?"

"The law firm mother uses when dealing with Man's World."

I raise an eyebrow.

"Do Amazons seriously call it that?"

She turns her head from the children to me.

"Yes."

She turns away again.

"The injunction should be in place by mid day tomorrow. In the mean while, the government has issued advice to all commercial sea vehicles that they should avoid this area for the time being."

"Longer term?"

"I honestly don't know. I expect the eventual settlement will be political, rather than legal."

I don't know what I was expecting, but that sounds reasonably good.

"And the harpies are alright about it?"

"I'm not sure that the ones involved in the abduction had thought things through this far. The flock elders were quite angry with them. I think they were surprised to get anything good out of it."

"So, I was basically right about everything?"

A smile.

"No. The harpies don't care about the tourists. The elders actually said that this group are welcome to stay for a few days if they want to."

"What was it then?"

"Drift nets. The area was being over fished to the point that the harpies were struggling to get enough food. They didn't even realise it was a cruise ship until they had already attacked it."

It occurs to me that she probably can't sit down here with that on without getting it covered in sand.

"Umm, do you want me to make you a chair?"

The children have reached the end of the beach and are clambering over the rocks at the end which several adult harpies are using as their perch.

"Why did you do this?"

"Do what?"

A frown.

"Help the harpies. I could have persuaded them to release the hostages without making any concessions. Giving away something you aren't obliged to doesn't seem very avaricious."

"Standard Orange Lantern Corps method of dispute resolution. Work out what they want, and work out how giving it to them is in your interests."

I sit up and shift position slightly.

"Besides, this is nice, isn't it? It feels like the world is working a bit better."

"How is this in your interest?"

"For one, its probably improved your opinion of me. Since you're going to be in charge of me for at least a year, that's pretty useful. Secondly, I get the impression that therearen'tall that many harpies. I don't like the idea of them just… not being there any more. Thirdly, since I'm not a psychopath, other people being happy makes me feel happy. Doing good feels good."

"You believe that most people are basically altruistic?"

"I believe that if people weren't basically civilised then civilisation wouldn't be possible."

"Isn't that a tautology?"

"Fine, then I believe that if people weren't at least slightly inclined towards altruism then complex society couldn't function."

"You would prefer to investigate and resolve the underlying problem through persuasion rather than impose a solution based on what you think is right?"

"Of course."

"That's a very… feminine… way of looking at things."

I smile.

"You have noticed that I've been watching the kids while you deal with the politicians and lawyers, right?"

She raises an eyebrow and grins

"Are you saying that you're more of a woman than I am?"

"No. No, I'm saying that you've been performing a traditionally masculine role while I've been performing a traditionally feminine one. And it doesn't matter."

The human adults begin to collect their children and take them back to the boat.

"So, what's the plan now?"

"I will need to speak to the ship's captain and relay the decision of the harpy elders. I think it would be best to spend the night here and continue on to Themyscira in the morning."

Ring, remaining charge?

Thirty seven percent remaining

"Rightyoh. Do you need me for anything else?"

"Not at the moment. Do you have something you want to do?"

"I'd like to speak to the harpies. Properly, I mean. We had a quick talk when I first arrived…"

"Why?"

"I've never spoken to a nonhuman intelligence before."

Err…

"Apart from you, sort of? In my parallel, on my Earth, there aren't any."

"None?"

"No gods, no monsters, just men. Humans! I meant humans."

She waves off my faux pas.

"Go ahead. I'll ask the captain to set up some quarters for us."


	8. 14

6th July 2010

Early morning.

Unsurprisingly, crew and passengers alike chose to leave the next morning. They offered to take us with them, but theydefinitelyweren't heading to Themyscira. I watched from the shore as they sailed away from the island. A surprisingly large number of harpies joined the vigil, including most of their young. The captain said that 'he'd think' about coming back, but I doubt it will happen.

My talk with the harpies was pretty unenlightening. I fielded questions about the wider world and the ring, they tried to answer mine about their history and culture. I don't think I was able to adequately explain the difference between the technology the ring uses and the magic they are more familiar with, at least in part because I don't understand exactly how it works myself. Their oral approach to history made me long for solid dates and timelines. Maybe an actual anthropologist could compare events for which we have a definite timeline to work it out?

We're back in the jet, and Wonder Woman is back in her standard armour. Fifteen minutes to Themyscira. Maybe half an hour until I swear my life away for a year. I need something to stop me feeling so nervous.

"You were up early?"

"I don't need much sleep. I also wanted to make preflight checks on the jet."

What else can I talk about? I've never been any good at small talk.Oh god, not that.Don't even think about that.I mean, I'm probably going to need to find out whether its true or not eventually, but no. What did she say yesterday?

"Why 'Man's World'?"

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"Well, I mean, the populations about fifty fifty. Obviously the presence of men is a change from Amazonian society, but I'm not sure why you still call it that."

"Name one female head of state."

"Angela Merkel."

"Who?"

"The German Chancellor? No? She is in my parallel."

"Gerhardt Brandt was elected three years ago."

"That... Argentinean woman?"

"You don't know her name?"

"Only thing I ever heard about her was that she was banging on about wanting the Falkland's back. Argentinean leaders tend to do that when they don't have anything intelligent to say."

"Santiago Ortiz."

"Oh."

That's… that doesn't make sense.Nofemale heads of state?

"Guess you've kind of got a point then."

"Of course, your country is different. The head of state of your country is Queen Elizabeth the second, and you've had two female Prime Ministers."

"My country in my parallel has only had one. Who did we get here?"

"Elizabeth Taylor of the Conservative party, and Danielle Goldsmith of the Liberal Alliance."

Liberal Alliance?! I am in a strange universe indeed.

"I've never heard of either of them. Same queen. I know… I mean… I know there are more men in politics than women, but its getting better, isn't it? I mean, compared to when you first came to the United States?"

"A little, in some places. But going from terrible to bad is nothing to be proud of."

"I've… never experienced that myself, obviously. But, it has sort of annoyed me that every copy of 'On Liberty' lists John Stuart Mill as the sole author, while in fact he wrote it jointly with his wife-"

Ring, name?

Harriet Taylor

"-Harriet Taylor. My old copy actually has an introduction which talks about it, and still only has his name on the cover. I mean, he refused to modify it after her death because he didn't think he'd do a good enough job without her. There's no reason for it."

"I actually didn't know that. I'll have to pick up a copy."

"Might not be true for this parallel. I didn't really compare histories."

Silence for several minutes.

"How… are the other Amazons going to feel about you training a male student?"

Ithinkthe plane is descending, but I don't have a good angle to the window.

"They'll find it strange that I would want to. But my mothers have always supported my decisions regarding Man's World."

Mothers?

"I… wasn't aware that Queen Hippolytahadan, un, a consort...?"

Oh, wait, no, that's not what she-

"No, she doesn't. I was referring to the other Amazons who helped mother, Queen Hippolyta, raise me."

"Yes, I should have realised."

I barely feel it when we land, but I definitely notice the engines shutting off. I close my eyes.

"Wait here. I'll check the Temple and then I'll come back for you."

I hear her unbuckle and then get up and walk towards the exit. She stops just past me.

"Why are your eyes shut?"

"I appreciate that I'm here on sufferance and I don't want to risk accidentally seeing something I'm not supposed to."

"We're notmaenadshere, Orange Lantern. Really, even if I wasn't here, if you told them that Alan was your sponsor you would probably be fine."

I open my eyes. Always thought that Amazons were pretty misandrous. They hadreasons, sure…

"Because… because the two of you used to work together?"

"No, its-"

She avoids my gaze and looks uncomfortable.

"-its probably something he should tell you about himself. Suffice to say he is well respected here."

"They'd take my word for it?"

"You wouldn't be allowed to go anywhere until they'd checked you were telling the truth, but yes."

"Huh."

She walks through the cockpit door and then out of the main door. For a moment I feel a wind and hear birdsong. There is a scent of moist soil and pollen.

How exactly am I going to word the oath? Does an avatar of Gaea turn up and hear it in person? Are we going to write it down? Because I'm honestly not sure I could sign my name without fainting. What I agreed to certainly doesn't sound like a traditional oath. Can I just say 'we agreed to something earlier, I swear to keep up my end'? I try to work out how to actually say it in a way that doesn't sound stupid.

"I swear that I will obey…"

No, the returning the lantern thing should go first. Or not?

"In exchange for ownership of Mr Alan Scott's power lantern… I will obey any non-suicidal orders given by either Diana, Princess of Themyscira, also known as 'Wonder Woman' or by a single individual nominated by her. I agree not to leave this star system."

No, the time limit should come first.

"In exchange for ownership of Mr Alan Scott's power lantern I agree that for the duration of one year I will do the following. I will obey any non-suicidal orders given by either Diana, Princess of Themyscira, also known as 'Wonder Woman', or by a single individual nominated by her. I agree that I will not leave this star system of my own volition. I may rescind this oath by returning ownership of the power lantern to Mr Alan Scott."

I think that's it. Sounds a bit legal for a mystic oath. I hear the door again.

"Alright, we can begin. There are no other Amazons around."

I get up. For a moment I wonder if I could have handled things better and not needed to do this. But it doesn't matter. This is what I am doing.


	9. 15

6th July 2010

Early Morning

The jet doesn't have steps at the door. We both just float down the meter or so to the ground. Its dull grey… stone, and natural looking. There aren't any markings and it certainly isn't paved. Behind the jet the stone continues a little way before breaking up into a beach of grey stone flakes. On the other sides the cove is surrounded by a steep grass covered bank. It also looks natural, though I suppose it would serve to suppress the noise of take off and landing. We're following a footpath around its edge. Away from the stone landing area everything else is covered in uneven clumps of grass. It might be grazed but it certainly isn't mowed. The area around the path has a small layer of good soil over stone and where they path it the soil has mostly been worn away. If it had chalk rather than whatever the grey stone is it could be theDownsback home.

It might be faster for us to fly, but I suppose raising my height would increase the chance of seeing something I wasn't supposed to, or of the locals being forced to notice me. The boots I'm wearing are tough but they aren't really designed hiking. As we move past the mound I get my first unobstructed view of the Themysciran landscape and it turns out that the Downs were a pretty good comparison. I can see a flock of sheep in the distance but otherwise the whole area could be uninhabited.

"If you don't mind me asking, how many people live here?"

"One hundred and eighty two thousand nine hundred and sixty one."

"That's a very precise answer."

"The population doesn't change. No one is born, no one leaves and since no one ages it is unusual for anyone to die."

"You were… I mean, you're more recent than that, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"I… look, if this is something I'm not supposed to ask then just tell me to shut up, but are they planning to make any more in the way they made you?"

She stops. I wince.

"The last time I asked, they were debating it. Amazon society has barely changed in the three thousand years since coming to these islands. My… creation… was the first time it had increased in population size. If I had… sisters? If that was even possible, it would inevitably change more. Even if they lacked my more unusual abilities."

"Are Amazons very conservative?"

"That isn't the problem. Some like the idea. But even for them there is no sense of urgency. Mother feels that something that big should be a decision taken by our society as a whole."

She starts walking again. I decide not to ask about other available forms of reproduction.

"From what you said, I assume that there are no Amazons on your world."

"Not like your people, no. No magic and no gods means no immortality. The history which led the Amazons leaving mainland Greece probably didn't happen. I'm… I'm having trouble coming up with any female dominated societies. I think some Greek city states had some types of property passed down the maternal line, but I wouldn't want to swear to it."

"An arrangement between father in law and son in law."

"Probably."

We've turned inland. The land is rising towards an area of woodland.

"If there's one hundred and eighty thousand people, where is everyone?"

"The main settlement is on the other side of the island. You can't see it from here. There are herds of animals, but none are in this area at the moment."

"I know you said that its all horribly patriarchal, but what do Amazons think of everything else about the rest of the world?"

"They barely have any contact with it. Major acts of magic might result in investigation using the scrying pools, and there are wards around the islands to detect trespassers. Other than that, they know only what they hear from me. Most aren't interested."

"Why not? I'm sure itsnicehere, but if they've been here three thousand years…"

"When I first went out into Man's World I had no real idea what I would find. From mother's tales of mainland Greece I was confident that Ididn'twant to go there."

"How old were you when you left?"

"Fifteen."

"Seriously?"

"I was… restless. I could fly and crush granite with my hands, and all of the world I knew was this island."

"Not much of a night life?"

"Oh, I don't know about that. You haven't seen it during the festival of Dionysus."

"I though you said you weren't maenads?"

"Hah!"

I guess Amazons indulge responsibly therestof the year.

"Anyway, I was gone for years. It wasn't until after the second world war that I could spend the time needed in order to visit."

"You were really out of contact the whole time?"

"Not completely. Kent was eventually able to create a two way scrying pool. I could see and speak to mother at intervals."

Kent?

"When I came home I told them what I had been doing. Because I wanted them to be proud of my achievements as a warrior, I told them about the war. I think the idea that the entire world could be involved in something like that reinforced the idea that isolation was the best policy. Did your world have a Second World War?"

"Yes. I don't know how similar it was to yours though."

"The Amazons lived in isolation for three thousand years and then I came back and told them that the atomic bomb existed."

"Oh."

"I did…try… to forge links. Later. One of the smaller islands housed a very successful women's prison and rehabilitation centre for nine years."

"Why did it close?"

"We found that taking petty criminals out of their normal environment and giving them useful work to do broke them out of harmful patterns of behaviour. Even hardened criminals could be turned into valuable citizens, given time. We weren't prepared for a genuine madwoman. Do you know what dissociative identity disorder is?"

"Yes."

"We thought that we had treated her. She showed every sign of being cured of her wickedness. But only one personality was being treated. We found out later that the switch between personas was caused by stresses that we had worked to eliminate from the prison environment. When she was returned to America she… reverted. She murdered eight people and injured many more before the Justice Society was able to stop her. After that, a senate committee investigated the prison. We thought that their concerns were reasonable, so we showed them the measures we used to ensure the safety of guards and prisoners alike."

"Was this the Committee on Un-American Activities?"

"Yes."

"Oh."

"We thought that the inspection went well."

"I can see where this is going."

"We used enchanted bracers and girdles to prevent violence amongst the population, and to encourage rehabilitation. We were accused of using mind control magic to turn them into our serfs."

And they probably weren't all that fond of the homonormative aspect either.

"And of trying to convert them to a heathen religion."

"Oh."

"The prison ceased operation shortly afterwards."

"Yeah, I… um… yeah."

We're just entering the wooded area. She stops again.

"Why are you doing this?"

Huh?

"Because you wanted to be sure you could trust me?"

"No. I mean, why are you so insistent on getting a lantern. Alan told me how dangerous you think the…ourworld is, but the fact remains that there are any number of people who live perfectly happy lives without super powers."

"Notsafelives.I appreciate your concern, but don't worry. I want to do this."

"But you didn't need to."

"I have no records, no legal existence, no friends and no family. All I have is this ring.I need it.I'm… not complaining about the unfairness of the universe, I don't rail against the heavens and I certainly don't beg for help.It is within my power to deal with this situation and that is what I will do."

She appears to consider this. She nods.

"Alright. Come this way."

"Is the Temple in the woods?"

"The Temple is the woods."


	10. 16

6th July 2010

Early Morning

I'm momentarily stunned.

"The Temple is the woods. Of course the Temple is the woods. Gaea is the Titan of the Earth and nature."

"What did you think it was going to be?"

"I was expecting something Acropolis-themed? This… this makes a lot more sense, actually."

And it does. Now that I look again I see a clear line of tall trees. I don't know what kind. Dad's the biologist. They are arranged in an arc too even to have occurred by chance, marking out the entrance in the way that carved stone pillars would on a more classical Greek temple. There are smaller trees form a circle around them and act to conceal them in such a way that you don't realise exactly how much taller they are than the rest. Their canopy and the vines I can see running between the trunks block a great deal of the light.

I follow Wonder Woman towards a gap between two of the larger trees. Should I feel something strange here? I have no experience of being affected by magic, but it just looks like a normal wood to me.

If it turns out that the oath isn't anything special I'm actually going to be disappointed.

Oh… what?

We've passed between the taller trees, and now we're in a clearing? There wasn't a clearing. I turn left and right and I can see a vast tree line… it wasn't this big. Right. Pass through the trees and end up somewhere bigger on the inside. I look left again and see that the tree line has a slight curve… Is that… I think I can see me in the distance. I'm looking away… I turn right, and I'm there as well. Experimentally I extend a hand in the opposite direction and see my doppelganger do the same. Feeling a little light headed, I wave at me. Yes, he waves as well. Reminds me of that episode of Star Trek with the floating head nebula thing.

"I realise that this must seem a little strange to you."

"No, no. Yes, but I can cope with a little spatial distortion."

Wonder Woman is giving me a moment to adapt. Maybe this clearing isn't actually all that big? Might be impossible to tell. There's a slight rise in the ground, heading towards a small grove. Wait. I look at the sky. There were grey clouds around before we came in. I come from Britain and so didn't think anything of it. Here, the few clouds are wispy and white, adding to the blueness of the sky with their contrast. I actually feel warm despite my environmental shield, when a hike across the island didn't change my temperature at all. Could it be psychosomatic? Yes, but the Harpy island had more 'hot' indicators. The grass is off as well. Rather than the clumpy overgrown moorland outside it looks like a mowed lawn that has been allowed to get a bit long. There are some low lying flowers -I can see many buttercups- but nothing else except at the top of the hill. I can smell them as well, and from this distance and in this concentration I shouldn't be able to.

I actually can't see the soil through the grass cover.As we start walking towards the grove I realise that I am reminded of the walks I took with my sister and mother through the parks of Eastbourne when I was of primary school age and younger. I suppose there's no reason…

Ring, remove my boots.

My feet feel strange for a moment, and then the boots are gone and I can feel the grass. Dry, slightly springy. The breeze on my feet feels nice, though the temperature hasn't changed. Usually I hate walking barefoot anywhere, but this feels appropriate, somehow, Ooh, that isn't a buttercup. I drop down on all fours to get a better look at it.

"Do you know what this is?"

Wonder Woman has gotten a little ahead of me.

"Uh? No, I don't. Is it important?"

"Probably not. Just curious."

I lean right up to it. I don't remember ever seeing one quite like this.

"Were you planning on moving any further?"

Right! Right. Goodbye, little plant. I get up and jog to catch up with Ms Doesn't-Stop-to-Smell-Flowers. As we continue up the hill I take a good look around. I can't see any other versions of me, so maybe the space bending thing only happens around the exit? The rest of the walk doesn't take long. The grove itself is a circle of short trees with a pool of water at the centre. Their roots appear to have grown into one another, like that old tree in Hampden Park park. I go to step into it, but Wonder Woman puts out an arm to stop me.

"This is one of the most sacred places in Themyscira. It is also my birth place. I understand that you don't worship the gods that I do, but I expect you to be at least respectful of it."

"Of course."

We step into the grove. Though the canopy blocks the light overhead it isn't dim so much as shaded. Wonder Woman kneels in front of the pool.

"Why are you doing that?"

"This is a Temple every bit as much as the stone building of the other gods. A reverential attitude is the appropriate one."

"Reverential? No, not reverential."

"If you're not going to take this-"

"Joyful."

I walk over to one of the trees and place my hands on its bark. It isn't enough. I lean into it, press my cheek against it. Breath it.

"Thelifehere. The drive to grow, to create verdant existence out of barren earth. Why would I kneel? Iwantthis, its wonderful!"

She's looking at me strangely. Have I said something wrong?

"That's an… unusual attitude to take."

"Is Gaea here?"

"That question doesn't really make sense. Gaea is everywhere on the Earth."

"Then why is this place so…"

I wave my hands. I'm not really sure what I'm trying to say.

"Her attention is more focused here, due to the blessings she has bestowed on my people. There used to be other places like it, in other parts of the world. There might still be, but this is the only one that I know about."

"Is there a ritual to perform, or do I just say it?"

"There is a traditional ritual, but since you aren't an Amazon all you really need to do is place your hands on the bare soil and state what you are promising."

"Is there likely to be a response from, you know, Gaea herself?"

"Possible, but unlikely. I've spent a great deal of time here and I've only spoken directly to an avatar of Gaea on two occasions."

That must have been amazing.

"So, how do we know if its worked?"

She breaths out heavily. I guess that while Gaea doesn't really care Wonder Woman wanted reverence.

"It works."

I move next to her, and drop down onto crossed legs. Leaning forwards, I put both hands on the earth. Agh, what was it I was planning on saying?

"In exchange for ownership of Mr Alan Scott's power lantern I agree that for the duration of one year I will do the following: I will obey any non-suicidal orders given by either Diana, Princess of Themyscira, also known as 'Wonder Woman', or by a single individual nominated by her, and I agree that I will not leave this star system of my own volition. I may rescind this oath by returning ownership of the power lantern to Mr Alan Scott."

Nothing happens.

"Was that right?"

"I think you covered everything."

She stands up.

"We should probably get back to New York and see if you can actually use the lantern. If you can, I'll need to work out a training schedule for you."

I grin. Progress!

"Rightyho. Lead the way."

She starts back down the hill, and looks over her shoulder at me.

"Are you..? Are you feeling entirely well?"

"I feel… I feelgood, actually."

Oh, that is the best idea ever. When did I last roll down a grass slope? Back in Scout camp when I was twelve? That one camp site that was basically a cliff? Uncomfortable thistles, though. But none of them here! I drop to my stomach and wiggle enough to start moving.

"Weeeeeeee!"

"Orange Lantern, what are you doing?!"

That was fun, but my unevenness has caused me to take a turn and now my feet are pointing downhill rather than across. That used to happen when I was little as well. Okay, I can't roll down like that…

"Ring. Zorb."

I rise into the air as the twin orange spheres form around me. For the first rotation I slide to the bottom of thezorb, but as it picks up speed I stick to the inner layer. Trees! Grass! Sky! Trees! Grass! Sky! Trees! Grass! Wonder Woman! Sky! I'm probably not moving as fast as I feel but the tree line is coming up pretty fast! Wow, this is great! Hey, if I time this right…

The zorb ceases to exist just as I hit the tree line and I'm flung straight forwardsback into the woods and what the hell did I just do? Leaves and branches hit me in the face as I frantically trigger the ring to arrest my momentum. I finally stop and drop to the muddy ground, eyes wide. Why did I...? I don't..? What..? I haven't moved a moment later when Wonder Woman flies through and stops in front of me. She looks… relieved?

"I… I am so sorry. I I I I don't…"

"I should have realised. If you've never encountered magic before then you probably don't have any resistance to it. I still feel some of what you just felt whenever I go back there, but you experienced it at full intensity."

"Did I? Is Gaea going to be annoyed about this?"

"Its extremely unlikely."

"I think I'll make a donation to Greenpeace just in case."

As we start back to the jet I try to stay calm. Shit. Ambient magic messes you up. And apparently the ring doesn't block it. Or can't. I'm going to have to try and do something about that.


	11. 17

6th July 2010

Morning

He kept it in a back room, not the loft. The room has trophy cabinets covered in medal plaques and award certificates. The walls are hung with photographs. Some of them look like newspaper photographs -the originals from the paper, I suppose- while others are group shots of the Society. Some are formal, posed, but others look like they were taken in some sort of social situation. There are bookshelves of photo albums containing photos not notable enough for the walls which share space with notebooks. Were they case note books he used when he first assaulted Gotham's organised crime? Or were they what he used as a reporter?

Wonder Woman left after dropping me off. Mr Scott has offered to put me up at least until she's finished planning what she's going to do with me. I accepted, partly because I don't know of any hotels that would accept gold as payment and partly because I prefer places and people I am at least a little familiar with to those I am not.

The lantern itselfshouldlook ridiculous. It's physically a carriage lantern of a sort that went out of use beforemy granddadwas born, and its emerald green. He had it in a beautifully carved wooden case with what looks like a velvet lining. Its now sitting on the desk in front of me. I've been an atheist ever since I was old enough to realised that adults could be wrong but this, this makes me feel reverential.

I'm starting to feel bad about taking it away from him.

"Well, that's what you came here for. Go ahead, son."

"Don't… might… do you think you should charge your ring first?"

"At my age? Be sensible, kid. What would I use it for?"

"If this works, this may be the last chance you get to ever charge it. Even if you don't intend to use your ring, it's a useful thing to have around."

"I suppose. Show you how its done."

He steps forward and takes the handle of the lantern in his left hand. He holds his right with the ring about ten centimetres away from the funnel. He takes a breath.

"And I shall shed my light over dark evil,

for the dark things cannot stand the light.

The light of the Green Lantern!"

His charisma and radio trained speaking voice actually make it sound impressive. Always looked daft written down. Green light flows from the lantern to his ring, not in a beam but like a flame in the wind, waving and twisting as it moved. As I look I'm not sure whether its moving into his ring or into him. After a moment or two it shuts off. He looks at his ring, and steps away.

"Fully charged. Not that I think I'll need it. So, ah, how were you planning on changing its color?"

I'm not sure that 'plan' is the word. If this is the Starheart then retuning the case should be enough. If this is a normal green lantern I might be able to assimilate it in the same way Larfleeze did people.

"Ring, assess this lantern. Can it be adapted to serve as your charge point?"

"Scanning. Power source compatibility sixty two percent. Damage detected to numerous subsystems.

"Damage?"

"Cause of damage unknown."

"Would repairing the damage help compatibility?"

"Full compatibility and repair can be achieved by full core realignment. Realignment is possible due to existing damage."

I hold out my left hand.

"Ring, realign and repair."

"Avarice insufficient."

Oh, yeah, that.

Mr Scott is letting me do this of his own free will. Heck, he's even got me a teacher. I like the flying.I like the new experiences having this ring has brought me, and I'm looking forward to the experiences I will have in future. I want to ensure my own safety, dependant on no one. I want to live the best way I am capable.

"Ring, realign, repair and recharge."

"Complying."

This time the beam comes from the ring, billowing orange as the ring begins the reconfiguration process. The lantern seems to shimmer and darken. The handle disappears. The funnel shrinks. Four new hand holds appear along the sides, mirroring the orange sigil. The look of it shifts from matte metal to something more technological, glowing visibly from within at several points.

"Realignment and repair complete. Beginning recharge."

The billowing orange energy cuts off. The ring looks duller, visibly almost out of power. The lantern is now dark orange, with lighter parts along the joins.

Then it hits. A bolt of orange energy straight from the glowing core to the ring. I flinch. Should it hurt? It looks like it should. But it doesn't. It feels…right. I should have this power. I deserve this power. ItsMINE.

"Welcome to the Orange Lantern Corps. You are Agent… error… processing… you are Orange Lantern two eight one four. Power level at one hundred percent."

"I have to admit, thatwasimpressive. Had any ideas about what'cha gonna do with it yet?"

Hahahahahahahaha!

"One or two, sir. One or two."


	12. 18

6th July 2010

Morning

Since I have no wish to end up a basket case like Larfleeze I have decided that I need to adopt a philosophical model which will assist in better focusing my avarice without causing me to be consumed by it. Wanting stuff is not by itself bad; I already believe this, and now I need a philosophical system which would suggest how to handle this approach.

A flight to Germany allowed me to pick up Nietzsche's complete works in the original language. The ring doesn't translate the words of the text, but rather translates the meaning of the sentences. It actually makes reading it jolly odd, but the ideas are communicated far more clearly and without the opinion of a human translator getting in the way. On a couple of occasions the translation of a sentence shifted as my understanding of the argument changed. Still not exactly quick going, and the summary I got during my degree covered most of the important points. I already accept the core cause of nihilism: I cannot objectively prove the truth of a particular moral code, and as such I have trouble placing faith in any of them. But if there's no absolute truth and nothing really means anything, why not make it mean whatever you want? Its not like anyone can prove you wrong. Clark Kent proves that a Superman doesn't have to be a monster.

Rousseau is a philosopher I have only encountered on TVTropes before. I don't think that his work will be of much used to me, despite my disbelief in the existence of evil. Maybe elemental evil does exist here, but I will never confuse the self interested actions of people excluded from mainstream society with some vague notion of innately entropic spirituality. I want to enable the avarice of others, channel it in constructive ways. The things someone like Pamela Isley could have achieved if she weren't a murderous lunatic…

I really only know Milarepa fromthe song. Actual information about his life is available but rather unhelpful. I suppose that since magic is real here he might actually have done the things attributed to him but aside from hunting down one of his followers I'm stuck for a way to find out how his religious teachings are different from default Buddhism. It's a shame because the song implies that he would be exactly what I need to study. The Song 'Invite Them In' exists here, but my internet search reveals that YouTube doesn't exist. Rather, that hole in the market is filled by . I think the name sounds silly but I suppose its what you're used to.

Hmm.

"If you lose all differentiation between yourselves and others,

fit to serve others you will be.

And when in serving others you will win success,

then shall you meet with me;

And finding me, you shall attain to Buddhahood."

Not exactly Lantern oath stuff, but I can see where he is coming from. If I took the desires of others as my own I could provide an effective public service and use avarice vicariously. I'm just not comfortable with the degree of loss of self that approach would entail. Working towards it would probably weaken me, at least to start with. I think I'm going to have to call him a dead end.

It took a while, but I finally found what I was looking for inMaslow's hierarchy of needs.

That is pretty much perfect. I need to understand both my desires, and those of others, and how they can come together to create something greater. People need these things, and as long as the society they are part of provides them they will generally tow the line. Deny someone, and you have a structural problem that will bite you in the arse.

For myself, most of my basic needs are met. I'm not going to worry about sex just yet, although I suppose prostitutes are an option. Singles bars are as well; thanks to my mining I'm wealthy, reasonably interesting company and my altered body is quite pleasing to the eye if I do say so myself. I don't think mixing alcohol with power rings is a good idea, and I'm loathed to take it off for any reason other than excreting. I tried to take a shit while wearing the ring on the ship off harpy island and it is not an experience I wish ever to repeat.

I'm as safe as I'm likely to get in this parallel, and the ring is perfectly capable to repairing my body and excluding disease.

As for belonging? I've been a lot more open with Mr Scott and Wonder Woman than I usually am with people I don't know particularly well. I think I'm trying to build a social ingroup at emergency pace. As far as sexual intimacy goes, I think I'll give it a while. My restricted social contacts and lack of a secret identity will probably mean that I'll be looking inside the super community. I'll just have to see what happens when I start spending time with people.

Family is… not something I've wanted to think about. I've missed work without prior notification. My boss will have tried to phone me, then phoned my emergency contact when I didn't respond. Mum or Dad will have visited my house and not found me. Unless me leaving left some sort of sign, Mum will get steadily more frantic. The one time I stayed out all night as a teenager she only calmed down once Eastbourne District General Hospital assured her that no one matching my description had been brought in to casualty. I don't remember how long it takes before police will investigate an alleged disappearance but I do seem to remember that their policy is that if an adult chooses to walk away from their life then that is their decision. I know I can't do anything about it, but my parents are going to have a really rough time. Move on.

Presumably my esteem will be dealt with when I start going on missions by earning their respect. Having had an opportunity to review the actions of my mentors in both the official reports and amateur video footage I can safely say that they've definitely earned mine.

I'm currently stuck as far as self-actualization goes. I'm still doing things because I need to, not because I have an idea for a way I want to reshape the workings of the universe. The very idea that Icoulddo something like that is a new one.

I hardly dare think it, but would it be possible to create an Orange Corps not of construct-wraiths or crazy people, but of people whose genuine desires match the general good? Is that something I could work towards? I have no idea how practical it is, and there isn't much work I can do towards that goal for the rest of the year. But...I think I want to.


	13. 19

6th July 2010

Late afternoon

I know I need practise using the ring for greater tasks than hitting things or zorbing. Might as well make it something that's good for the world as well, right? Somehow I went from that statement to the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I'm holding position in the middle of a cloudy ridden sky above theGreat Pacific rubbish patch. I can't see a thing. Even my ring enhanced vision isn't showing anything useful because there isn't anything here. At some point the grey sky and grey clouds and grey rain become grey sea full of grey plastic particulates but the only way I can tell where any of those are is the ring's sensors.

Extracting precious metal from asteroids made me rich within the dreams of avarice. Not beyond, obviously, or I wouldn't have been able to do it. The same sort of system should work here. I'm not going to be able to clean the entirety of the world's oceans, but the high concentrations here make it possible to improve the situation.

Mr Scott has actually been surprisingly helpful with regard to construct initiation. I need to focus clearly on why I'm trying to do what I'm doing here, then start the process. Lets see…

This mess is created by humans, and as one I am responsible for dealing with it. I owe Gaea for her help, and cleaning her up a bit will help repay that. I eat fish, and I don't want to eat plastic they ate first. If I finish here I can go somewhere interesting…

I thrust my right hand down at the swirling mess of plastic beneath me. An orange bean extends downwards to just above the water, then spreads out into a vast disk. Its about ten miles across; not enough to remove the whole thing but it's a size I think I can manage. The glow is strong enough that I can actually see it from inside the cloud.

"Give me plastic."

The disk extends down, lengthening into a cylinder. I raise my left hand above me and another orange beam projects from it, with a stream of orange connecting it to the one going down. The connector looks a bit like the proton beam in the Ghostbusters films. As the cylinder filters out the plastic -fish and other sea life should be unaffected- it appears in a mass connected to the upper beam. My OrangeVisionTM lets me see it. Not much so far.

"Work faster, damn it!"

Waaah! The orange glow from below just dramatically increased in luminosity. For just a moment I could see clearly everything around me. I can feel the area of the subaquatic construct expand as it hungrily consumes every bit of plastic it can find. The lump above me visibly swells.

Ring, power level?

Eighty eight percent remaining.

Alright then. Cleaning time.


	14. 20

6th July 2010

Evening

It's funny. Mum always said that if I put as much work into my school work as I did my hobbies I would go far. What she never understood was that I did. The things relating to my hobbies just stuck in my mind better because they were more interesting. Now, my work and my hobby is the same thing, and rather than making the hobby boring it has made the work interesting.

I don't have access to the full League intelligence database. Batman apparently believes that no connection is secure enough for that sort of information transfer. League members can download from the central archive to a Batman-approved terminal via Batman-approved satellite links, but can only upload by being physically present at one of a very small number of places. Basically, his cave and the Watchtower.

What I have is a slightly out of date copy of the records of currently active criminals with whom the League has had contact. Turns out this version of Matthew Hagen was a failed assassin rather than a failed actor. Dr Victor Fries is a bachelor, and without any of the redeeming qualities that made him an interesting character in Batman: The Animated Series. I suppose real people don't worry about whether an audience will find them interesting or not. I'm going to have to watch out for things like that, people I think I should be able to negotiate with because I think they have a different history to what they actually have.

That's why I've been trying to get more information on Black Adam. Having had a quick look at what is going on in Kahndaq I can only describe it as 'Saddam's Iraq, without his noble self restraint and fair-mindedness'. Unlike my parallel here there was no eleventh of September attack and as such no one has been sufficiently motivated to remove President for Life Asim Muhunnad from power. Oh, he gets condemned at international conventions and there are a load of sanctions, but nothing is going to come of it. If anyone can be said to deserve getting ripped in half in the central square of Shiruta its him, and I really hope this version of Mighty Adam is more like his comic incarnation than Dr Fries is.

I checked earlier that Theo Adam exists, and Doctors Clarence and Marilyn Batson died at roughly the right time compared with Black Adam's first public appearance for the version am I familiar with to be the one that exists here. Bit of a huge thing to risk though, particularly since I have no idea how to communicate directly with his original personality. Maybe a telepath or magic user?

The database lacks entries on the Anti-Monitor, Atrocitus, Thraal Sinestro, Manhunter Androids and Krona. Someone isn't sharing. Again, I can't assume that the Guardians are the arseholes they are in the comics, but the more they look like they might be the stronger my negotiating position. Nothing on Larfleeze either, which means I can't confirm what I think I know. Oa gets a mention but Malthus doesn't. The few long terms plans I've come up with so far are rather reliant on the Controllers being where I think they should be and being pleased to see me. A bit optimistic perhaps, but I think planning for the best scenario is nearly as important as planning for the worst.Always be ready to seize an opportunity.Nothing on the Darkstars but I don't remember much about them other than the fact that a load of former Lanterns joined them after Lantern Jordan destroyed the Green Corps.

No entry on Darkseid, or anything on the other New Gods. Nothing on Apokalyps -or however its supposed to be spelt- or New Genesis. Given the relative youth of the League here they probably haven't had any contact with them. I'd offer what I know but I can't risk giving them the wrong information.

Just in case my memory isn't up to the task of holding all of this information I've had the ring download a copy. I'll try and get it a full copy at the earliest opportunity. Its not like anyone on Earth can hack a power ring.


	15. 21

6th July 2010

Night

Finding a gun in the United States is exactly as hard as I thought it would be. Buying a decent one on the other hand is going to be nearly impossible. I have no background to check and no passport to present. I can't even prove that I'm in the country legally. Certainly there are places I could go to pick one up illegally but I doubt getting one at all is going to go over well with my mentors. I'd rather stay as much within the bounds of the law as I can.

I do want one, though. Just as a back up in case I have to fight something ring proof or if I run out of power in a combat zone.Lantern Jack Chancewould have been a dead man if he hadn't kept his gun after his recruitment and that particular piece of outside the emerald box thinking earned him my admiration.

I don't know much about guns, but I believe that revolvers are more mechanically reliable than magazine based pistols. I neither need nor want a large calibre weapon. Spare ammunition or 'fast-loaders' would be similarly pointless. This weapon is to cover my retreat, not initiate an attack.

Maybe I can get Mr Scott to buy one on my behalf? I suppose he might already own one, it didn't occur to me to ask. I don't remember anything from the comics about his attitude to firearms, but I hope that he is rational enough to realise that if you trust someone with a power ring you'd sound a bit silly saying that they can't have a gun due to how dangerous it is.

The other part of the gun issue is training. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of occasions on which I have seen an actual gun in my life and I've never fired anything more dangerous than a low powered air rifle. I don't remember where I first heard the phrase 'a weapon you don't know how to use is a weapon that belongs to your enemy', but I am inclined to believe it.

Which is why I'm now standing in the West Side Pistol and Rifle Range being shown how to load what I'm told is a Smith Wesson Model 63 .22 revolver by a chap named Christopher. Its past their normal closing but a combination of uniform and gold bought me a few private sessions. He wasn't exactly impressed by my choice of weapon but I pointed out that a) I'd never touched a gun before and b) there was no human produced gun that equalled my power ring he dropped the subject. He insisted that I wear earmuffs and goggles, despite me pointing out that the ring would not allow me to be deafened or blinded.

Oh, great, the comedian has decided to put up an alien shooting range target. Very funny. Alright, eight bullets loaded, safety off, feet planted, both hands on the gun, aim, trigger.

Yep, that's loud. After the first shot the ring glows and the sound of the second shot drops to nearly nothing while other sounds are amplified. I can actually hear the rustle of the target paper as the second bullet takes the target in the seventh tentacle. After the third shot clips the target the rings gives up on my aiming and gives me an augmented reality view of where the shot is most likely to go. I focus on my goals and it disappears. The whole point of this is to learn to fight without ring assistance. The rest of the bullets follow -more or less- in the direction of the first, and Christopher pulls the leaver to reel in the target. Not too bad, though the distance was short. Three in the central area, and all of the other five hit the paper somewhere. Guess all that time spent playing Time Crisis wasn't a complete waste.

Christopher is less impressed. Apparently I'm over-correcting and worse, holding the gun too tightly. I'm also holding it too low and my arms are just generally wrong. And so are my legs. No, they actually don't teach this stuff in Lantern school.

Okay. I take a stance he is less unhappy with. Open the revolving bit, gently tip the spent… urm, bullet left over thingys… onto the counter, reload, shut it back up again raise it -higher? Like this?-, aim, and fire.

Better this time? Oh? Well, your ten year old probably has more experience than me.


	16. 22

7th July 2010

Late morning.

"How fast that time?"

Wonder Woman looks up from her stopwatch.

"I don't think The Flash has to worry about his job security."

"That's hardly a fair comparison; he has a opt out on the laws of physics. How about Superman, or you, or something."

"Your best time so far is about a quarter of what I can do. Without straining."

"Wow I suck."

"Its not that bad."

"How about compared to the other Lanterns?"

"I'm not sure. I haven't flown with them that often."

That reminds me, I do need to ask about them.

"Have the Green Lanterns said anything about me?"

"Are you expecting them to?"

"I was expecting to get stuck in a science cell, actually."

"Why?"

"The Guardians' deal with Larfleeze is that he doesn't leave the Vega Systems and they don't send Lanterns to the Vega Systems. I don't think they ever expected to encounter Orange Lanterns outside that area, and they don't usually respond well to things they didn't expect."

"Sorry to disappoint, but neither of them have been back to Earth since you arrived."

Neither?

"I… pretty sure I detected three Green Lanterns when I first got here."

She looks down for a moment.

"The other Green Lantern-"

"Lantern Gardner."

She looks at me.

"Come on, he doesn't even wear a mask. That's like not knowing whoyouare."

"Lantern Gardner is not a member of the League. As such, I have no idea whether or not he knows anything about you."

"Is there a particular reason why he isn't a member? He's not…thatbad."

"He got his ring shortly after the League was founded. We might have included him in the first expansion were it not for the fact that he was in a coma at the time."

"What happened to him?"

"He was hit by a bus."

Huh?

"What?"

"I'm not sure exactly what happened, but he wasn't wearing his ring at the time and so was injured like any normal person would have been."

For god's sake, Guy.

"He regained consciousness earlier this year. He might still end up joining the League, depending on his duties to the Corps."

"He was in a coma for three years? My understanding was that injuries like that usually included some sort of lasting brain damage."

"I honestly don't know how well he's recovered. I've never worked with him. I would have thought that if the damage were significant then he would no longer be able to use his ring, and I know that he can."

I remember that in the comics he ended up switching between nice but weak Guy and mean but strong Guy whenever he hit his head. I'm fairly certain that such a condition has no basis in medicine.

Alright, I'm flying slowly, presumably because I don't care about going fast. It's the same problem as when I was in space: one patch of coastline is much like another unless you're right next to it, and when I'm that close I want to explore, not zoom past. I have to want it more.

"I think the problem with my airspeed is that I don't want it enough."

"Why don't you want to go faster?"

"Because its abstract. By going faster all I achieve is a different number on the stopwatch. It doesn'tmatter. Competing against my own speed just doesn't…"

"What if you were competing against me?"

Mmmmm. I'm notthatcompetitive, but maybe.

"That might work."

She thinks for a moment.

"The coast of Turkey is about five hundred miles in north of here."

"Loser buys lunch? I have been wondering where you carry things in that armour."

"On this world we have these things called 'credit cards'. They are convenient to carry and can be used to pay for things in many places. I keep mine in my left boot."

Ppppffffffff.

"Okay then, go on thre- HEY NO FAIR!"

I shoot forwards after her. Instinctively I assume the swimmer pose, arms tucked tight against my side, legs back and feet turned sole upwards. OrangeVision marks her position ahead of me, the compass points and the horizon. I'm gaining on her.

You're not going to have so easy a time of it.

Just as I come up alongside her she accelerates again. Holding back!

Don't mock me, I don't need your consideration.

Her relative acceleration drops, stops, then becomes negative.Gaining again! I can taste thepide!

And she's pulling away again.

Alright, fuck it, I'm winning this. It's a stupid pointless race with no consequence but I want it Want It WANT IT.

The sea blurs. The islands blur. I blink and I'm past Wonder Woman.

!Need!

Faster!

I risk a look back and I see a orange trail. Eyes forwards I see that my normal environmental shield has expanded and is far thicker at the front.

Faster!

OrangeVision marks the coastline. Not far now!

Faster!

The shield in front of me is damn near matte orange. I can see through the sides, but there's some sort of distortion in the air. Oh wait, is that..?

Baghuahlhahrhal!

Shield shield shield!

Uh!

Ow!

Argh!

Bwah!

Ow!

I come to rest is a furrow of soil, rock and tree. Araaahaah.

Everything seems to be intact. Uhh.

I gingerly push up on my hands, and then rise to my feet.

Shiiiiit…

I've… I think I clipped a section of cliff. An otherwise solid line of frontage has a chunk that just isn't there anymore. I can see where I hit the ground, bounced, and then hit again. Thank god there was no one around. There… there wasn't, right?

"Ring, scan for organic remains."

"No deceased or damaged animal life detected. Unable to calculate dentritic remains."

"Den what?"

"Tree parts."

Hahhhh. I breath out. Picking my way back towards the unruined part of the cliff I survey the damage. Looks like a donation to the Turkish forestry commission is in order. And the tourist board. I shakily sit down and await Wonder Woman's arrival. I'm going to either need lots of practise not losing control when I create a sonic boom, or maybe just restrict myself to travelling that fast above a certain altitude. Pressure build up shouldn't be a problem on the edge of the atmosphere. Or maybe the ring can keep me just below the speed where it happens?

OrangeVision shows me Wonder Woman before I can see her unaided. I raise my right hand and create an orange sigil over my head. She comes in fast, then slows to survey the damage.

"No one… no one was hurt, but I'd rather not do that again."

"What happened?"

"I wanted to go faster, as fast as possible. I wasn't prepared for the sonic boom and lost control."

She nods, and comes down to land next to me.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah. Yeah, the ground broke my fall."

She gives me a flat look. I giggle.

"I'm fine. Really. As long as Idesire my own well-beingthe ring will put me back together."

"Try not to test it so thoroughly in future."

I raise my hands and nod.

"No fear."

I look along the shoreline. Craters aside, its really quite pretty.

"So, lunch?"


	17. 23

7th July 2010

Early afternoon

"I think that's my first federal offence."

The jewellery merchant and I look at the smouldering remains of the bundle of one hundred dollar notes in my right hand.

"What? How did..? Those were perfectly legitimate notes, honest!"

I don't know what just happened. I finally got round to selling some of my metal for money I could conveniently spend, and as soon as I picked it up, wompf.

"I'm sure they were. Would you please bear with me a moment? I need to have a chat with the ring."

"You go right ahead."

Ring, what the hell just happened?

Ring acted in accordance with the users contempt.

Contempt?

Avarice is the desire to possess a thing. Contempt represents a desire not to possess a thing. You have contempt for local currency. By regarding it as less than valueless you indicate to this ring that gaining it would diminish your net worth. This is in contradiction to the avaricious principle of the orange light.

This is what I get for studying financial philosophy.

Ring, can I turn this effect off?

Only by learning to value the thing you currently regard as possessing entropic value.

How about a debit card?

Unknown. Result is likely to be the same, but accurate prediction is impossible without further data.

Fiddlesticks.

I knowwhyI have contempt for cash. The recent -in my parallel- financial collapse resulted in me learning a great deal about the way in which money really works. And it's mental. Value based on confidence in future buying power I can sort of accept. Debt based currencies seem like a bad idea, but they do work, until all growth is debt based and suddenly it seems that everyone owes everyone. Including themselves, as the customers of newly nationalised banks were quick to discover. And somehow you end up with the same money being in three different bank accounts and no one really understands who owns anything. Except that whoever they are they have made a loss for tax purposes.

Gold may tend to keep its value relative to other commodities, but even if it doesn't then at the end of the day you have a metal which still has industrial uses. Same with platinum. I had realised the disquiet the whole thing made me feel, I just hadn't realised that it would ever have this sort of practical effect.

I turn back to the jewellery merchant. Her name is Paola, and she had such high hopes for this meeting. Looks like I'll have to disappoint her.

"I'm sorry, but it seems that… for theological reasons… I am unable to accept any payments in fiat currency."

She deflates a little more.

"Would a treasury bond certificate work?"

"Thank you for the thought, but probably not. And I don't think risking it is a good idea. Look, that-"

I indicate the ashes.

"-was about two gold coins worth, right? Please, keep them. I would hate for you to be out of pocket over this."

We shake hands and I leave the shop. That is going to make life a little difficult. With one thing and another the amount of gold I have on me has noticeably decreased. I'm going to need to go back to the asteroid belt to pick up the rest of my reserves soon, but I don't really want to do that until I know where I'm going to be living in the medium term. Wonder Woman said that she would have an answer for me this evening. If it turns out that she expects me to live in a cave in Themysciran territorial waters…

Huh. Ivery nearlyliterally don't have any choice in the matter. Bit liberating, really. Only one thing left on my 'To Do' list and then I need to sort out what I'm cooking the three of us for dinner. Pudding is my signature chocolate cheesecake with orange custard but that's already in the fridge back at Mr Scott's house.

I may not have a lot of skills applicable to my current situation but I'm darn well going to use the ones that I do have.


	18. 24

7th July

Mid afternoon

I'm floating in the sky over Central City, hoping that crossing the last item off my list won't be too difficult. Personal protective gear was my first priority when I returned to Earth after my mining expedition, but the bike gear I'm wearing was only ever supposed to be a short term solution. There are probably many people whocouldmake the equipment that I want, but I only know one name and Mr Scott couldn't help. He never bothered with specialist gear himself and every name he knew retired long ago. I suppose that I could ask Wonder Woman if there was a smith on Themyscira would could enchant something to my specifications but given my last encounter with magic, I think I'll leave that for plan b.

The name I have is a G or a B and he makes the apparel of the Central City Rogues. Presumably if he's still in business then his nameisn'tknown to the police. Which means that the only way I can think of for getting his name and address is to directly ask one of them.

A swift review of my supervillain related files reveals that I will want to avoid Mirror Master, The Trickster, The Top and Abra Kadabra. They are either too dangerous or have abilities I can't properly predict. Pied Piper seems like a good bet if his character is anything like his comic incarnation but I don't want to take the risk with a guy known for mind control. While none of the remaining members should be underestimated, I think that the safest to approach is probably Digger Harkness akaCaptain Boomerang. Heh,Captain Harkness. Oh, I wonder if Doctor Who exists here? Have to check later.

Captain Boomerang got out of prison a week ago after serving eighteen months for armed robbery. It would have been longer if he'd used a gun but apparently the judge couldn't take a fellow armed with bent bits of wood entirely seriously. I sort of understand how he felt. I can only speculate how he manages to threaten The Flash badly enough to warrant inclusion in the Rogues at all. My best approach is probably to pose as a neophyte supervillain, use a little flattery and bribe money. After all, being a failed armed robber can't pay that well. And with that decision I utter probably the strangest instruction any Lantern has ever given their power ring.

"Ring, scan Central City for boomerangs. Exclude all toy and sport accessory shops."

"Boomerangs found."

"Give me an image of the area around the highest concentration."

An orange image appears in front of me. Looks like a bar. At this time of day not many people are inside but I can clearly see Mr Harkness on a stool in front of the bar itself. He is alone, and appears to be nursing his drink. One platinum coin should pay his bar bill without hindering my finances to any significant degree. Even better, he'll probably recognise it. Surprising how many people assume that its silver. Must be the association with gold.

"Ring, plot parabolic flight path."

The ring makes no audible response, but a moment later I can feel the route, as well as its suggestions for avoiding the level of notice that touching down in the middle of the street would attract. Top of building then down fire escape it is.

Flight isn't an uncommon ability amongst metahumans and related oddities, but the only regular flier in Central City is Weather Wizard and he isn't particularly good at it. Perhaps some people see me as I make what is basically an exaggerated long jump over their heads, but I doubt that they think much of it. Onto the flat topped roof -must leak terribly-, reorientate, walk over to the metal fire escape, down, and out of the alley onto the street. I'm back in causal clothing so I don't attract much attention.

Minimum age for alcohol consumption in the US is twenty one, right? I'm not certain I could pass as that, and I don't have any paperwork to prove my age. Doesn't matter, I wasn't planning to drink here anyway. I push open the door. There's a television I didn't notice in the corner playing news of the aftermath of some sort of local super hero fight. A flash of OrangeVision confirms that aside from a shotgun behind the bar only Mr Harkness is armed. I walk over and occupy the stool next to him. He glances at me before returning his attention to his drink.

"What'd'you want?"

He sounds bored. Do random people walk up to him a lot? Do supervillains have fans? Not just crazy types like Dr Quinzel who obsess over their subjects, but actual rational admirers?

"Directions to your tailor, actually."

He frowns, but doesn't look up.

"Come a long way for a suit, ain't ya?"

"Says the Australian."

Nothing.

"You know, I heard a joke about that. If you hear someone speak, and you can't tell whether they're an Australian or a New Zealander, always guess New Zealander. If they're actually from New Zealand they'll be dead chuffed that you thought of it before Australia, and if they're from Australia they'll just laugh."

Nothing. Now I feel really awkward.

"Um, no, ah, not for a suit. There's a place in Vietnam I go to, they taken your measurements and run the things up while you get lunch. I was referring to your other clothing."

That gets me another glance. Appraising? Irritated? I can't tell. I'm rubbish at facial expressions, and the ring can't really help.

"Look, I don't need another bleedin' reportah-"

I open my right hand on the bar, palm up, and create a rotating orange sigil.

"Ah. Now, how the hell d'y do that?"

"Power ring. Same as what the Green Lanterns use. I prefer my colour scheme, though."

I dismiss the construct. He appears to consider.

"Where'd'ya get it then?"

"The Green Corps is run by the Guardians. The Orange Corps is run by the Controllers. They really don't get on. This sector already has three Greenies -four if the guy from the forties is still alive- so, here I am."

"Yew on Earth to pick a fight?"

I shrug, both arms adding emphasis.

"Depends on how things go."

"Yew plannin' on starting something here in Central City?"

"No no. Just here to shop for clothes. I'm probably not even going to be working in this city."

He looks at my hand, and pulls what is probably his contemplative face.

"Yeyh, a'right."

He waves at the barmaid.

"Oi, Jessie, paper and pen."

The barmaid puts down a glass she had been cleaning, pulls a sheet off her waitressing notepad and passes it over with her pen. Mr Harkness scrawls something and passes it over. Fortunately, my bosses handwriting is worse.

"Tell 'im Digger sent you."

Gambi. Paul Gambi. That was his name.

"Thank you. I appreciate it."

I get up. Wait…

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm a bit new at this."

I reach into my leg bag, take out a platinum coin and place it on the bar in front of him.

"Would you accept a more practical demonstration of my gratitude?"

He squints.

"Not silver."

"You know, you're the first person whose realised that straight out? Platinum, about two thousand dollars worth."

He picks it up delicately with left thumb and forefinger.

"I'd'a heard about a theft."

"I broke no Earthly law getting it. Please, have a few rounds on me."

He comes close to smiling.

"A'right. Cheers mate."

I nod to him, and then turn and leave. I doubt that Mr Gambi will be able to provide me with the armour I want today but I should be able to get measured up and select materials at least. Ideally, he'll have some standard armour lying around that I can adapt in the mean time. I don't want power armour at this stage -sinceSteelisn't active I doubt that there is anything on Earth that measures up to what I can get off it- but I do want something that can reliably stop low calibre bullets. Beyond the stuff I know of from my own parallel I don't know what might be available on the grey market here, but from what I remember Mr Gambi is a basically honest guy and will probably be able to talk me through it.


	19. 25

8th July

Morning

My sleep cycles are a mess. I usually wake up at six o'clock and go to bed at around eleven. Not only am I no longer on Greenwich Mean Time, but I've been spending time in different time zones and I think the ring is doing something to keep me alert when I would normally start to feel tired. As such, the knowledge that this is the day on which I meet my new team didn't keep me up last night. That fact just joined in with all of theotherthings. At about two o'clock I gave up on sleep and tried meditating. I remembered that in Justice League Animated John Stewart had been able to call his ring to his hand from several meters away, so I placed the ring on the palm of my left hand and tried to empty my mind of everything but my Hierarchy of Needs.

When my alarm went off I was sitting in the air, cross legged and glowing orange with the ring floating between my outstretched hands. When I became aware of this I fell out of the air onto my bum with some force. Still, it demonstrates that physical contact is not an essential component of ring control. Even better, the experience left me physically and mentally refreshed. Bruised posterior aside.

Breakfast was porridge with caster sugar. Alan -I now have first name privileges- doesn't use my preferred golden syrup and I would have felt silly flying to Britain to get some. My one attempt at interacting with an American supermarket left me distinctly unsettled, like a rabbit that leaves the burrow through the wrong entrance and finds itself inside the arena at a destruction derby. Smaller shops I can handle, such as the butchers and greengrocers where I got the materials for last night's Shepherds Pie, and I will make an effort to try to get to know the staff at the shops around wherever my new team is based.

Both he and Wonder Woman seemed surprised when I requested that Alan accompany us. The way I see it, giving his lantern to me marks me as his designated successor and the very least I can do for him is let him see me get properly started. Plus, I think he will enjoy meeting some of the current generation. The idea that I will have someone to speak in my favour if the League's Green Lanterns -who will be there- become hostile is also be reassuring. It also gives him the opportunity to use his ring again on official business, something he seems happy about.

I think we were all surprised that he still fits in his old costume. I'm in my light armour. Turns out that Paul Gambi doesn't actually sell armour. He literally just does bespoke tailoring for supervillains. Luckily his botherPeterGambi does have a line in personal protective equipment, and he was willing to put me in touch. I've got an appointment with him in Metropolis in a couple of days. I'm also bringingmy lanternwith me. Alan gave me the box he kept it in so that I would have somewhere to put it. I'm using the ring to add straps to carry it with.

Thinking about it rationally, I realise that I will probably be at the older end of the age range. Kyle Rayner would have been… what? Seven years younger than me when he got his ring, and he still ended up in… What were they called at the time? The Titans? Kathryn Kane -Batwoman- was younger than I am now when she started. Renee Montoya might have been older when she became The Question, but she had years of police experience. I hope there's at least a couple of other adults; it'll be weird if its all teenagers.

I suppose I shouldn't be too insulted if it is all teenagers. They'll probably have been doing this sort of thing for years.

Our base of operations is going to be the newly refurbished Mount Justice facility in a place called Happy Harbour. I vaguely remember something about the early Justice League operating out of a mountain from a comic, but it was a modern addition to earlier stories and what I remember from it doesn't seem to match what I am now seeing.

Its about half seven in the morning when Wonder Woman parks her jet in a field overlooking the town. Alan makes a point of stretching when we get out. He hasn't actually activated his ring yet, though I can see the glow. I think it must have been low on power when I first saw it because there is no way not to notice the green light now. Its like a small green portal gun or something, energy wafting around the spout but never fully leaving.

The field is basically empty, but a small road runs next to it. No animals, and it doesn't look like there's a crop planted or grass harvested. Maybe she owns it? She was on the League when they worked out of the mountain so she must have parked the jet somewhere. I can see the mountain over on our left. Not much of a mountain, really. The lower parts are covered in trees and they continue up in parts to the summit. Bah, I've been up Snowdon. That is a jumped up Justice Hill.

Wonder Woman leads the way to the edge of the field and… a phone booth? A full get-in-and-shut-the-door phone booth? I can't remember the last time I saw one of those, the rise of the mobile pretty much killed them off. And who uses it out here?

Oh, I'm being stupid.

OrangeVision

Yep, lots of circuitry and other gubbins I don't understand. So, this is a zeta tube. I stop walking.

"Oh, hell no. I'veseenStar Trek. Those things are not safe."

They both look at me. Wonder Woman sighs.

"The League has been using zeta tubes since its founding. They are quite safe."

"Its all fun and games until your eye gets teleported to Poughkeepsie."

"That can't happen."

"Or intomyface. Ilikemy eyes."

She take a breath, one hand resting on her hip.

"I don't think they've finished the ground level access yet. We closed them all off with rubble when we abandoned Mount Justice the first time."

"Is therereallyno other way in?"

She is about to answer, then pauses.

"There is a sea entrance."

"Sea entrance is good."

"We build it for Aquaman. The external end is about two miles out to sea. "

"And I need to test my environmental shield under water."

"Some of us don't have power rings."

"I can extend the shield over you. Or make a bubble around the three of us."

Alan looks amused by the fuss I'm making.

"I can shield myself, thank you very much."

Or possibly at Wonder Woman's irritation. I have no intention of getting involved with that piece of mad science if I can possibly help it, but it would be intelligent to make my argument in a less confrontation way.

"We're here early anyway. You said the meeting was at eight, right?"

"Yes."

"Have you ever used the sea entrance yourself?"

"Not while conscious."

Okay…

"Then this is a great chance to see what it looks like."

She exhales.

"I understand that you are concerned about using a new technology, but League members use these every day. You will most likely have to use these on your missions."

"Tell you what. We'll use the sea entrance this time, and I'll spend tomorrow going over the safety records and design schematics. If I can't find any evidence that backs up my concerns, I'll use them without complaint."

"Very well. We'll use the water entrance."

She lifts off the ground. I follow. Alan remains were he is. Wonder Woman smiles.

"You do remember how it works, don't you?"

"Yeah, yeah, its… been a while, though."

A ghostly green flame aura surrounds him and he rises to join us.

"Might be a bit rusty to start with. Try not to leave me behind too badly."

"Don't worry. My Granddad used to walk slower than the rest of the family. I'm used to it."

He perks up.

"Used to? Did he start jogging or something?"

Internal wince. Can't think of a way to avoid answering.

"No, he um. He died. Sorry."

Why did I say that I am such an idiot. My hands rise to my face and I start to nervously giggle.

Alan and Wonder Woman look at me, then at each other. Then they start laughing.

"Well I hope I'm notthatout of practise."

Ring, scan for the damn entrance.


	20. 26

8th July

08:04 GMT-4

We break the surface in a plume of water.

"Alright, I admit, not as interesting as advertised."

I dismiss the environmental shield from around Wonder Woman and drift to the edge of the inner pool. She and Alan come down behind me, and I stop to let her lead the way.

"… calling it into service again, since you four are determined to stay together to fight the good fight. You'll do it on League terms."

I can just about hear someone talking. Low pitch. No idea where its coming from. These caves are bouncing the sound around too much.

"Red Tornado volunteered to live here and be your supervisor. Black Canary's in charge of training.Iwill deploy you on missions."

"Orange Lantern, in accordance with the terms of your oath to Gaea I nominate Batman as the other individual whose orders you must obey."

Is that Batman's voice? Much easier to understand than the Christian Bale version.

"Rightyho."

"You realise that because of that detour we're late."

"Sorry."

"Here, it doesn't really matter. If you arrive late on amission, people can die."

"Yes sir."

"Civilians. Your team mates. You."

"Yes sir."

A flicker of green in the corner of my eye draws my attention. I look up as a Green Lantern who must be Harold Jordan flies overhead carrying something big and mechanical looking in a glowing green hand. The hand is being projected directly from his ring. I've been using this ring for three days and I've already learned not to do that.

I can't believe Sinestro didn't teach him better than that.

He's seen us as well. He stops in the air, staring at me. I think about waving, but decide that its probably inappropriate. He looks decidedly unhappy to see me. I reflexivelystrengthen my environmental shield. Just in case. Then Alan steps forward.

"Morning, Hal!"

Green two eight one four A nearly drops his construct.

"Mister Sc… erm, Alan! Hi! We weren't… I wasn't expecting you."

"Thought I'd see the boy in on his first day. Especially when he keeps tells me that he's surprised I haven't dropped dead yet."

That's not what I…ugh.

I wince. Wonder Woman catches my eye and nods in the direction Lantern Jordan just came from. We walk away as he and Alan keep talking. Nice to know he gives Alan respect face to face, even if he couldn't be bothered to fix his lantern for him.

"The six of you will be that team."

We're getting closer to wherever Batman is. Since this is an actual induction, there are probably other League members around, working on other parts of the building. I'm a bit impressed that they have the knowledge to build their own bases, but I suppose they can't really hire people to do it. I remember all of the operation staff there were in Justice League Unlimited. Massive security risk.

"Cool! Wait, six?"

We exit the tunnel and enter another large cavern. I suffer a brief nerdgasm as I identify The Flash, Batman, Aquaman, Black Canary, Hawkman and Red Tornado. I wonder if he's the elemental/robot hybrid version, or the pure robot from the cartoons? Since Wonder woman had never heard of Rann, probably the latter. My future team mates appear to be Kid Flash -the Wallace West version-, Superboy, a tough looking black guy with bleached hair and a short, black haired guy. Probably a Robin, given that Batman's here. Yep, all teenagers.

Martian Manhunter and Miss Martian walk towards the cluster of people from the direction of what I assume is the zeta beam base station. Batman flicks his gaze in our direction for a moment, but everyone else is watching the Martians.

"This is the Martian Manhunter's niece, Miss Martian."

She waves, nervously.

"Hi?"

"And that-"

Batman turns back toward me, and this time everyone turns with him. Still haven't quite reached them so I can clearly see everyone stare. Gulp.

"-is Orange Lantern, protégé of the original Green Lantern."

Chin up.

"Sorry I'm late, sir. I'm afraid that I took some horror stories about teleportation rather to heart and asked to come in by the sea entrance."

Kid Flash looks at me for a moment, and then decides he'd rather talk to the green girl.

"Welcome aboard. I'm Kid Flash! And this is the -slightly extended- gang."

Another look at me. They all already know each other, don't they. Definite ingroup intrusion vibe. Might as well introduce myself properly.

"Robin."

I nod.

"Kid Flash. Miss M'orzz. Superboy. And… I'm sorry, I've got no idea who you are."

I extend my right hand to the black guy. He takes it.

"I am Kaldur'ahm. My code name is Aqualad."

"Orange Lantern two eight one four. Pleased to meet you all."

I'm not the biggest Aquaman fan, but wasn't Aqualad white? Went on to become Tempest? I think his name was Garth, or Gareth, or something. Another difference.

Kid Flash squints at me.

"Hey, wait a second.Orangelantern? How many Lantern colors are there?"

I turn to him. "That I know about? Nine. Though, logically I… I suppose you could make one of any colour."

"Nine?!"

Robin puts a hand on his shoulder.

"Try to stay whelmed, Kid."

Whelmed?

"Whelmed?"

Kid Flash winces.

"Don't."


	21. 27

Welcome to Happy Hour

18th July

10:37 GMT-4

"What I'm saying is, they accidentally took a guy from the wrong planet. That doesn't sound very safe to me."

M'gann and I are in the kitchen area. Finding out that despite her appearance she is actually forty eight was quite a relief. Someone I can talk to! Aqualad is sixteen but I've got no idea whether that counts as adult or not in his country. Superboy came out of his pod on the day I got the ring. He looks physically adolescent, but his mental development is all over the place. I had an interesting conversation with him about 'Human, All Too Human' a couple of days ago. His analysis of some of the aphorisms was interesting, but when he spoke it sounded like he was reading out something someone else had written. When I questioned him about it he got in a mood and stomped off. If we're going to live together I'll have to watch myself to make sure I don't push his buttons like that.

"Uncle J'onn says that that can't happen again."

"Of course it can't; he's already here."

She giggles.

"No, I mean the safety systems have been improved since Dr. Erdel experiment. There has to be a tube at each end, and they check the signal integrity before sending whoever is inside."

I've got a construct whisk whisking the mango custard. I'm on dinner duty this evening and I've decided to try my mango meringue cake on a captive audience. People at work seemed to like it. The construct has four whisk bits and as it has no actual mechanical components is virtually silent. I've kept the basic shape though, since I'm used to it and the handle is convenient. The one I made for work had two layers. This one will have three. Partlybecause I want to push my baking skills, and partly because I want there to be some left for the rest of uswhen Kid Flash has finished. He says that he has a fast metabolism as a result of his speed, but I don't think that can be right. He can run at the speed of sound; there is no way a human body can ingest enough to fuel that in the conventional way. On the other hand, he isn't gaining weight, so, I don't know.

Cooking for and being cooked for by apprentice superheroes is an interesting experience. M'gann goes for traditional American food, though yesterday she branched out into Tex-Mex. I pretty much flip through a recipe book until I find something that looks interesting, though when it comes to pudding I currently have a bit of a custard fixation. When he's actually here Kaldur does baked fish with various kinds of seaweed. It isn't as bad as it sounds. Superboy does Beef Stroganoff and poached pears. He does them well, but it appears to be all he knows how do to. I watched him once, and he put everything he needed out on the work surface in a very particular arrangement before starting. Cooked the whole thing in a fugue state, unresponsive when I tried to ask him about it.

One morning M'gann tried to help him make pancakes. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I ended up having to remove burned pancake mix from the work surfaces, floor and his forearms with the ring.

Kid Flash actually looked distraught when he turned up last Friday evening and I told him I didn't know the number of the local pizzeria.

"But do they check the integrity of the thingcheckingthe integrity?"

"There is at least one level of redundancy built in to each system, an automatic remote daily system check and a service each month."

I stop and look at her. She simpers.

"I read the manual."

"Good. I'm glad someone has."

The custard is mixed. I won't add the mango purée until its started to get stodgy. I eliminate the whisk construct and watch as the custard mix coating it falls into the bowl. I put it in the microwave, one hundred percent power, four minutes.

"Are zeta tubes common on Mars?"

"No, we don't use them at all. Earth developed the technology first, and on Mars the radiation disrupts the signals too much for it to be much use."

I float off the ground, legs folded up beneath me. The cake itself is in the oven, the custard is in the microwave and I can't start the meringue until they are both done and cool. I also can't start doing something else while the custard is cooking because it needs attention every few minutes.

"Why are you doing that?"

"Huh?"

"You do that sitting in the air thing a lot. I was just wondering why?"

Huh, I suppose I have. Hadn't thought about it. Didn't realise that she'd noticed.

"I've had this ring for a fortnight. The novelty value of being able to do this hasn't worn off yet. Kinda hope it never does, actually."

"I can't imagine not being able to fly."

Huh?

"I don't think I've ever seen you fly outside of the base."

"Yes, because I'm trying to fit in. I can't just walk down the street and start floating things in public."

"Why not? There are humans who can do things like that."

"Yes, but not very many. I don't want to attract that amount of attention. While I'm here, I just want to be a normal Earth teenager."

Teenager? Odd. Maybe shape shifters think about societal groups in a different way to humans?

"You do know we're not a monoculture, right? A teenager in the United States is very different to one in Kenya, or Pakistan."

"Yes, but my first exposure to Earth culture was in some teevee shows Uncle J'onn sent back after I asked what it was like here."

"They were all American?"

"I think so. I didn't bring the tapes with me, and when I watched them I didn't really know anything about the different countries on Earth."

"Might be interesting to watch them again, now you know more about what its like here."

"Maybe. I think I mostly liked them because it was so different to what I was used to. Open skies rather than caves."

"You lived in a cave?"

"All Martians do. Oh, no, not little caves. Vast underground caverns. All of the settlements on Mars are underground, because of the radiation."

"Uh."

Mars must be very different here. And not just the being inhabited thing, there are reasons why some worlds don't develop life.

"You said that you came here from a parallel universe, right?"

"As far as I can tell, that's correct."

"Do you have… what's Mars like there?"

"In my parallel Mars is a frigid, barren, uninhabited desert wasteland. I think we found some bacteria in soil samples, but that's about it as far as life goes."

"Oh."

"Sorry, but its like I said. Where I'm from Humans have only met other Humans."

The microwave keeps whirring. There was something I was meaning to ask. What was it? Oh, yes.

"I've been wondering… I saw you change your t-shirt from white to black when I first got here..?"

"Yes?"

"Do you actually wear clothes, or do you just shape shift part of your skin to look like you are?"

Silence. The microwave beeps, and I pull the steaming protocustard out onto the work surface and recreate the whisk construct.

"YesIwearclothesofcourseIwearclothes!"

I turn around. She looks flustered and is blushing purple.

"Oh. Shape shifting clothes. That's fairly impressive, actually. Though I suppose for a Martian on Earth something like that would be pretty essential."

A quick wizz with the whisk and then the custard goes back into the microwave. I set it for two minutes and go back to watching it.

"I'mnotnaked."

"Alright. What sort of range do these wonder garments of yours have? Just standard humanoid, or can they do extra arms as well?"

"Really. I'm wearing clothes. Totally wearing clothes."

"I fully accept that you are wearing clothes."

"I mean, you don't seem to care but some people would probably find it really strange if I wasn't wearing clothes."

"They probably would."

"It would bereallyhumiliating."

"Okay."

"I just want to be clear."

"You are fully clad. The matter is resolved."

"Okay."

"Okay."


	22. 28

18th July

10:45 GMT-4

I've added the purée and am now trying to determine whether or not the custard needs to go back in the microwave. The purée adds a considerable amount of liquid and won't help with thickening, but the custard is hot and will thicken as it cools. Really, to act as icing between the cake layers it has to be quite thick. A little longer will probably be best. I set it for two minutes.

"What was it like?"

"What was what like?"

"Just… turning up in space like that."

"I was asleep for the actual turning up part. Waking up was weird, then painful."

"Painful? Why?"

"The ring detects my desires and tries to fulfil them. It decided that my body wasn't perfect and corrected it. Human bodiesreallyaren't designed to shift around like that."

"You think your body is perfect?"

I hear her raised eyebrow in her voice. I suppress an impulse to pose and flex.

"No, it… This body is the most perfect form ofme. I can't change it without it becoming either less perfect, or less me."

I peer at the custard. Still counting down.

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"What made you pick that face?"

"What's wrong with my face?"

"Nothing's wrong with it, I just wondered why you chose it."

"Its my face."

"Pre-tty sure that Martians don't have hair."

She looks around. No one else near the kitchen area. There an odd sound, a bit like reeds moving over a paving slab, and her hair merges with the rest of her head.

"I just… Human girls aren't usually bald. And I actually like having hair. Brushing it felt kinda weird to start with, but it was nice once I got used to it."

I know she doesn't want anyone to know that she is a White Martian, but images of what Green Martians look like exist, surely? I suppose I don't know for sure that this M'gann actuallyisa White Martian. And I can't check without other examples to scan and compare. Is it important enough for me to make the time to fly to Mars? Probably not.

"snort Yeah, and the rest."

"What… what do you mean?"

Its been a while, but I still remember broadly whatMartian Manhunter's wifelooked like in Justice League Animated. I hold out my right hand and generate what I think is a Green Martian female shaped construct about M'gann's size.

"You're talking to someone who actuallyknowswhat Martians look like. Heck, it takes me less time to get from Earth to Mars than to get to some places on Earth. Not that I don't appreciate you making an effort to fit in."

I remove the construct and take the custard from the microwave. I use the spatula construct to scrape the custard stuck to the edge of the bowl back into the centre, and to gauge its consistency. Not quite done yet. Back in it goes.

"I was just wondering, why that face? Was it from a magazine or something?"

There's that noise again as M'gann restores her hair. She's looking at the floor, hands clasped in front of her. Ah, I've done it again! I didn't think this would be a big deal for her.

"Could you not tell the others?"

"If that's what you want. But if its just Superboy and me here, don't worry about it. You can change back. It wouldn't bother me and given what the Genomorphs look like I very much doubt that it would bother him."

No,not enough, I still feel like an arsehole.

"Look, I'm… I'm sorry, I didn't realise that it would be a big deal for you."

"That's okay."

No, it isn't.

I step towards her, take hold of her right hand with mine and hold it up, covering it with my left. She looks up.

"I should have just left it alone. I should have realised that you were uncomfortable with what I was saying and stopped. I'm sorry. That you've changed yourself like this for our benefit shows great generosity. I just want you to know, you don'thaveto. I was expecting aliens to look different from Humans. I won't be angry, or scared, or revolted if you use your natural appearance, alright?"

She look to the side.

"Its just… Ireallywant to fit in here."

"I can understand that."

"And its okay for guys to look like big ogres but girls need tolooklike girls."

"Okay, Wonder Woman wouldliterallycastrate me if I let you get away with saying that."

Her eyes flick back to me. She looks stunned for a moment, then indignant.

"No, she wouldn't!"

"No, but she'd be annoyed about the double standard. And with me, for not commenting on it."

I release her hand. I think I fixed it. M'gann turns and starts to walk away. Probably best. I've made enough of a mess for one day. Then she stops and turns back to me.

"I copied this face from the lead actress on one of the television shows Uncle J'onn sent me. It was called 'Hello, Megan'. The first thing I did when I got to Earth was see if there were any more episodes, but it got cancelled after one season. I don't… did you ever watch it?"

"Name doesn't ring any bells, but not all American comedies made it across the Atlantic. Particularly the short lived ones. From a parallel universe."

"I suppose you're even further from home than I am. Are you… I mean, getting on alright? With the differences?"

Am I?

"There's two categories. There's major differences, like this ring and you. Those I'm fine with. Then there's the small things. Names of popular websites, some minor historical events, commonly available technology. The television programs I used to watch. Walk down the street and everything's slightly off. That, sometimes, gets to me a bit. Honestly, I try not to think about it. Making myself miserable won't help anyone."

"What sort of television shows?"

"Doctor Who. My Little Pony. The BBC did a reinterpretation of Sherlock Holmes recently, that was pretty good."

"Do you miss not being able to watch them?"

"No, its… I don't missthem. Doctor Who had really patchy quality in the last few series. But it would have been a point of familiarity, if we'd both seen it, y'know?"

"Yeah. I think that's what I was looking for, on Earth. I mean I know life isn't a situation comedy but I wasn't really… happy, on Mars. I wanted to meet people like the people Megan met in the show."

"I could probably get this ring to play a canned laughter track whenever anyone says anything. If it would help."

She smiles.

"No, that would just be weird."

The microwave pings. I open it and give the custard a stir. Done. I cover the bowl in cling film, poke a few holes then leave it to cool.

"Okay, that's about done. Kitchens all yours for the next couple of hours."

"What are you doing for the rest of the day?"

"Right now, I have an hours worth of meditation on the Hierarchy of Need planned. Then reviewing intelligence reports. This afternoon I'm going back to the centre of the Pacific for more clean up duty."

"Why do you do that?"

"It's full of plastic."

"No, I mean, the meditation."

"Power rings, all of them, cause psychological instability. Some, like the green or yellow ones, just make you a bit odd. Others, like mine, can have really nasty long term effects. If you know what you're doing, you can counteract it. If you don't, you end up like-"

Larfleeze.

"-Star Sapphire. Meditating on the Hierarchy reinforces the balance between different levels of desire, from simple and direct ones to complex and long term ones. Without that, I would risk becoming... only caring about my short term wants."

She looks concerned.

"If it makes you crazy, is it really a good idea to use it?"

"Good idea, bad idea. It's the ring I have."

I shrug. I reallydon'thave a choice in the matter.

"What are your plans for the rest of the day?"

"I don't really have anyfirmplans. Kid Flash said something about giving me a guided tour, so I suppose Superboy and I will taking another walk around Happy Harbor."

"Haven't you done that, like, every day you've been here?"

"I don't want to get into a situation where I don't know what to do. Uncle J'onn is arranging for me to start high school, but until then I'd rather learn Human social customs slowly. And, well, Superboy…"

"Yeah. Alright, I understand."

What can I do to help?

"Look, I'm never going to be able to concentrate on plastic particulates all day. How about if I come back at about five o'clock and we all go somewhere. Anywhere on Earth. We could even spend the evening on Mars if you really want?"

"No! No, um, thanks for offer."

She thinks about it for a moment.

"Maybe we could go to Acapulco?"

No reason why not. I don't know where it is and I only know the name fromthe song, but I'm sure the ring will be able to find it. Wait a minute.

"Did Megan from the series go there?"

"No. But one of her friends did. When I got to Earth I found out that was because the actress playing her got hit by a car and they needed to explain why she wasn't in the series any more, but they made it sounds really fun."

"Okay, Acapulco it is. I'll see you later."

I leave the kitchen and walk back to my room. I'm a bit surprised she was so worried by me knowing what Martians look like. Maybe its because as a telepath she'll know if we find it weird if we try to pretend that we don't? I'm also surprised she wasn't a bit more psychologically resilient than that. I suppose she's used to being in a society where everyone is empathic enough to stop asking when its making you that uncomfortable.


	23. 29

18th July

11:27 GMT-4

I chose a room towards the centre of the base. It's not like the walk to the briefing room takes more than a minute, and I want to be as secure as possible. M'gann wanted one closer to the communal areas and Superboy… I think he got put in one near her. Remembering not to call him Conner or Kon'El might actually be difficult if he were more talkative. Kaldur has one as near as possible to the sea entrance. I'm not sure why as he generally arrives and leaves by zeta tube. Maybe that was Aquaman's old room? Maybe he just likes to go for a swim sometimes. I don't think that Robin or Kid Flash have bothered to pick out rooms, though that might change once their summer holiday starts and they have more spare time.

Running through the stages of the Hierarchy has become second nature to me. As has floating without touching the ring. I hold my hands cupped at my stomach, legs crossed, eyes staring at the blank wall in front of me. The ring floats about twenty centimetres above my hands, and the diffuse orange aura extends at least that far around my body. Its been over a week since I last fell out of this posture due to a surprise, M'gann opening the door unexpectedly. We had a conversation about how knocking was polite when dealing with people who aren't telepaths.

When I turn my mind to 'friendship' I find that M'gann's face has firmly joined those of Alan and Wonder Woman. That's new. Ah, no, she said that she was fine with me calling her Diana. Alan and Diana. I suppose our heart to heart in the kitchen has forced my brain to accept her as part of my ingroup. Progress with getting to know the others is slower. It wasn't until I demonstrated a pinpoint accurate ranged attack that I even found out they'd wanted Speedy -Roy Harper, not whatshername- on the team, and I only found out then because Kid Flash doesn't mutter as quietly as he thinks he does. I'm not sure that they hold his absence against me, exactly, but they certainly aren't happy about including someone they don't know. Someone they don't know who isn't an attractive woman, anyway.

I did -briefly- contemplate trying to use the ring to change my gender, but I don't think that would actually have helped.

Family hasn't changed. I miss them being around, and I worry about them missing me. It wouldn't be so bad if I could somehow send a message to them letting them know that I was fine but wouldn't be coming back anytime soon. I went up into orbit to scan my emergence point and it turned out that what I told Diana was true; a ring could track back my flight path to the start point. And then, well, it could tell me about the presence of certain forms of exotic energy and particles, and couldn't suggest anything helpful to do about it. I have noticed that this ring appears to have a very limited pre-programmed database. Maybe once I make contact with the Controllers they will be willing to update it.

Sexual intimacy? M'gann's nice, but she acts quite a lot younger than her actual age. I know Martians live longer than Humans but even so, her life experience should put her beyond high school level, surely? I don't feel that sort of attraction to her. No change to that analysis needed then.

In terms of confidence-

"Hey, Orange!"

Mr West appears to have decided that knocking is for other people. I put my feet down and float the ring onto my hand, sigil facing inwards.

"Yes, Kid Flash?"

I'm still not completely comfortable referring to people by code names. Again, no serious mistakes yet, but I'm going to have trouble faking surprised if they open up enough to tell me their real names. And if they did, I still wouldn't be able to reciprocate. I didn't think that I said my own name often but not being able to introduce yourself gets frustrating quite quickly.

"Did you know that Megan has this awesome bioship?"

"Yes. Its been here nearly as long as she has."

The stealth was interesting, but without guns or shields I'd hesitate to take it into combat. When she showed me, I suggested that I could remedy this by standing on the outside of the hull. Though a functional solution, I am now slightly concerned that my idea will come back to haunt me.

"Oh. Well, we were all going to go flying around the harbor but she wanted to see if you wanted to come as well. I'll tell her you were busy with…staring at the wall…or whatever."

He takes a step back to leave. I hold up my right hand.

"No, this sounds like something I should make time for."

"Pf. Fine."

He leads the way towards the hangar, deliberately staying ahead of me so that he doesn't have to talk to me. I need to make an effort.

"Ahhh… no archer, then?"

"No."

I think he actually kicked the ground when he said that.

"Did he say why he didn't want to join?"

He slows, and lets me come alongside.

"He thinks the League will treat us like kids."

I don't comment. I've seen these kids fight, in the database recordings. Put someone normal through that sort of thing, they'd die is seconds. How Robin manages I have no idea.

"Seriously, its beenoveraweek. Nothing!"

He throws up his hands.

"I'm rather new at this. Is that sort of time gap between major missions normal?"

"In Central City, there's always something! One of the Rogues, or a mugging, or a fire, orsomething.Anything!"

Diana has had me accompany her on assignments a few times. It mostly involved me watching her work or using OrangeVision to provide her with tactical information. She also has me convey the apprehended criminals to police custody. It makes sense to me for her to treat me like that given that I am completely new at this, but the other guys have earned some involvement, surely? Or else, why put them here?

"Maybe Batman just hasn't found anything worth our time?"

"I'd take a jaywalker right now."

Not sure Mr Garrick would appreciate that. Oh, hang on, mustn't forget.

"Oh, erm, I've got a cake in the oven. Would you mind if we went via the kitchens?"

He perks up.

"Is it done?"

"The cake layer should be, but I won't do the meringue until this afternoon."

"How many layers does it have?"

"Three of cake, two of mango custard, and then everything gets covered in a layer of meringue.Thattakes a while to cook. Huh?"

He is now behind me. He stopped walking a second ago and is just staring at me.

"Where'd you learn to do that?"

"None of it's particularly complicated. I've been baking regularly for years; frequently, since I started living here."

And then he's standing next to me, one arm stretched up companionably around my neck. He normally moves at regular speed. I've seen him run before, but celerity isa lotmore shocking at close quarters.

"I think you just became my-"

He pauses, counting on his fingers.

"-third favorite team mate."

Suck it, Superboy and Aqualad.

"Ah, thank you, I-"

And he's gone. A flash -hah- of OrangeVision shows him in the kitchen staring at the oven. Our kitchen is awesome. I don't know who the would-be chef in the League is, but I owe them for not just assuming that teenagers would try living on take-away food.

"Inertial controls on. Ring, plot route before Wallace scoffs the lot."


	24. 30

18th July

11:31 GMT-4

My flight control has massively improved since my encounter with Turkey. In narrow confines like the base corridors I let the ring AI handle navigation. With my inertia regulated I can change directions with no loss of speed. First time Diana ever told me that I had impressed her was when I used that to fly at full speed through a dense Themysciran forest. I move through the base like a jet powered slalom skier, coming to a halt just outside the kitchen area.

"You sure it's not done?"

"Yes, the meringue takes an hour."

"Aww. M'gann made cookies earlier, but I could probably fit in a few slices of cake."

"I think that was the first time she used that recipe. How did they turn out?"

"Sooo good. Shame there weren't more. Everyone else just got one each."

I use a construct to open the oven and lift out the three cake tins. The cakes within look well done, though this mix does tend to brown on the outside while still being underdone in the middle. The ring also makes it very easy to lift the cakes out of the tins without lining them or risking breaking the cake.

"If you're really that hungry, there is a bakery in Happy Harbour. We could probably stop off."

"Any good?"

"I don't know.I don't buy stuff I could bake myself."

"Mrm. Think about it."

We walk towards the hangar.

"Have you used your ring in an actual fight yet?"

"No, I haven't."

"How come?"

"I've had it two weeks. In that time I've either been here, or shadowing Wonder Woman."

"Wonder Woman gets in fights all the time!"

"Errr… put it this way: you've been active two years, right?"

"Huh. Yeah, I guess it would be."

"Did The Flash involve you in fighting the Rogues from the start?"

"Notrightaway."

"Well, there you-"

"We took down Mirror Master together in mysecondweek. So if you fight someone today you'll only bejustbehind me."

Right in the ego. Right in the ego.

"So, yeah, you should probably just stay out of the way in a fight. We'll try and leave one or two for you. Regular guys, so you can actually cope."

"Ah. I appreciate the consideration, but I think I can aim a little higher than that. The Green Lanterns call power rings 'the most powerful weapon ever created' for a reason."

"Sure you can keep up?"

"I think I'd probably take things at a steadier pace until I was sure I knew what I was doing, but yes. I don't intend to be a burden."

"'Cause Rob and I were talking about it earlier and we think you're probably the weakest out of all of us."

"Really? As I see it, the only person here I couldn't take in a fight is you."

He looks at me with an expression of incredulity.

"Really."

"I can't account for every possibility, but yes, I think so."

"You think you can take Robin."

"None of his standard ordnance is strong enough to penetrate my shield. My shield has no gaps. I can track him through his smoke bombs and attack at light speed."

"Healwayshas plans for how to take his enemies down."

"Plans that in my case he has neither the information to set up nor the equipment to carry out."

"Aqualad."

"His strongest attacksmightbe a threat, but I can evade with flight and attack from a distance."

"Miss Martian."

"She shares my lack of combat experience, and is far less aggressive. I would attack before she can disrupt the ring with telepathy."

"Superboy."

I shrug.

"Same as Aqualad."

"Seriously!? You did read the report where he took down me, Robin and Kaldur in like thirty seconds."

"With all due respect to everyone's favourite Human-Kryptonian hybrid, my regular sparring partner is Wonder Woman, and she hitsat leastas hard as he does."

"No. Way."

"Ah-ight."

I shrug. Unless we start sparring against each other there's no way to tell for certain. Might be worth arranging to start that, actually.

"If you really think you could beat everyone else -which you totally can't-, why don't you think you could beat me?"

"It's not so much your speed as your faster reflexes. If I start with the ring inactive and we're about… what, five meters apart? I've got a fraction of a second to raise my shield before you hit me. Longer, if I want them strong enough to take you punching them as fast as you can. If we start further apart I can fly to evade but I'll still struggle to hit you. If you're intelligent enough to go after my lantern and play keep away, you'll probably win by exhausting me."

"Yeah, that sounds like something I'd do."

We reach the elevator and get in. Kid Flash pushes the button to take us down to the hangar in which M'gann keeps her ship. When she first introduced me to the ship we had a moment of cross cultural confusion when I asked her what it's name is. Despite clearly regarding it as a living thing she didn't see any need to give it one.

"As much fun as this joy ride is going to be, might it be worth scheduling some team practise in for later today? Remedial sparring, if you think that I'm that far below your level?"

"Nah. We all pretty much know what we're doing. Even you, I guess. Wonder Woman and A-. Erm. Green Lantern wouldn't have put you here if you werecompletelyuseless."

"I do know what his name is."

"Yeah, he said, but you shouldn't get into the habit of using people's names. Still can't believe you just walked up to him like that."

"Seemed like the logical way to go about it."

"Secret identities aren't that easy to breach."

"Why does everyone think that? He wore a tiny mask!"

I put my thumbs and index fingers around my eyes with my other fingers splayed outwards.

"Tiny tiny mask which didn't cover his face at all. One facial recognition scan was all it took."

The elevator pings open while my hands are still in front of my face. I turn outwards to see the rest of the team staring at me. I lower my hands. They're still staring.

Yeah.

"It was a tiny mask!"

I stalk towards the open rear of the ship. M'gann is trying not to laugh by covering her mouth with her hands. I think the others are just bemused.

"Are we going or what?"


	25. 31

18th July

11:37 GMT-4

I plonk myself in the seat to the left of the entrance and the chair extends a seatbelt around me. M'gann follows a moment later and takes the pilot position.

"Strap in for launch."

She did let me have a brief go at controlling the ship a few days ago. I can handle simple manoeuvres with the manual controls but I couldn't get my head around using the gravity drive for more complex stunts. Intellectually, I know that 'down' is towards the floor of the ship but whenever I tried to do anything fancy I kept becoming convinced that it was about to be the planet's surface again. It's weird; I don't have that problem with the ring at all. My attempt at using the telepathic control system with the ring was a complete failure.

Kid Flash comes in next and takes the left midship position, swinging the chair around to face M'gann. Robin takes right midship, Superboy at right forwards and Kaldur at left forwards. Guess I'm nobby no-mates then.

"Red Tornado, please open the bay doors."

The ship manifests the control columns and M'gann raises her hands above them. I still haven't quite got used to flight that doesn't involve either conventional gravity or inertia. When I use the ring to alter my inertia it's all pre-programmed. I just ride along with it. I tried altering gravity so that the pull towards the ceiling was two gees once. It wasn't painful or even uncomfortable, but it was weird as heck and I haven't done it again. M'gann's ship pulls out of the hangar so smoothly that if I couldn't see the view I would think that we hadn't moved at all.

We shoot out over the water. I have no idea why no one has seen us. In a sensible universe we'd be a tourist attraction by now. M'gann shows off the artificial gravity by putting us into a brief vertical climb, turns and spins the ship on it's axis, and then turns us back towards Happy Harbour itself. The whole time everyone on board felt no more than one point one gravities towards the floor, and maybe point one against the direction of acceleration. It actually feels like being in a malfunctioning simulator. If all Martian technology is like this I have no idea why they aren't the dominant power in this system.

"Incredible."

Robin seems to appreciate it. He can probably compare it to the Batwing, so can better understand how much more advanced it is than the best Earth has to offer.

"sigh She sure is."

Either Wallace isliterallybesotted, or, wow. M'gann turns to look at him. I can't see her face from here.

"Ah, I mean, the ship."

He's actually pointing. Good save. Good save.

"Which, like all ships, is a she."

Stop digging, man.

"Fast with his feet. Not so much with his mouth."

Oowh, harsh, Robin. Harsh.

"Dude!"

I should probably try and help him out.

"Would it be a problem if someone saw us up here?"

M'gann stretches her neck to look at me. I worry a little about the pilot taking her eyes off the window, but there isn't anything to hit up here and no way for a birdstrike to interfere with the engines.

"Why would it be? We're not doing anything wrong."

"Do you have a pilot's license?"

"Yes! Oh. Do you mean an Earth pilot's license, or a Martian one?"

"Whichever one the American civil aviation authority is likely to ask for."

Wallace takes the opportunity to support M'gann.

"C'mon, Oh El. No one's gonna care about that."

Maybe he's right. Maybe civil authorities have learned to leave alien craft well alone. I certainly wouldn't blame them.

"No no. You can't call me Oh El, it'll get confusing."

I now have Robin's attention too.

"You see any other Orange Lanterns around here?"

"No, but Superboy's an El, isn't he."

Wallace looks puzzled.

"How d'you get 'El' from Superboy."

"From his father? That's usually how it works, isn't it? Kryptonians aren't matrilineal."

Superboy is now paying close attention.

"What do you mean?"

"Superman's name. Kal-El. Son of Jor-El. Which presumably makes you, whatever you end up picking as your first name, followed by El. The important thing is, I can't be Oh El, because it would make me sound Kryptonian. People would get confused."

Superboy looks stunned.

"I didn't know Superman had a name."

"You didn't think his parents called him Superman, did you?"

"I didn't… I hadn't… thought about it…"

I smile.

"Learn something new every day."

Robin leans towards M'gann.

"Hey. How about showing us a little Martian shape shifting?"

Guess he decided that I've pushed Super-El too much.

M'gann rises to her feet and steps forwards from the pilot's seat. The reeds on stone noise again as her legs turn… dark… grey..?

I get out of my seat to take a closer look, glowing orange-soled boots making sure I stick to the deck.

"Hehe. Damn, I look good."

Orange Lantern M'gann strikes a pose. She even has her ring facing the right way. Wallace doesn't seem to share my appreciation.

"Oh, that is just wrong."

Wait, does that mean that she reallywasn'twearing clothes earlier? Not mentioningthatto Wallace.

M'gann twirls on the spot, and shifts to female Kid Flash. Does Jessie Quick exist here? Another one to look up. Wallace seems confused.

"That's… sorta wrong, but also kinda right."

Robin claps.

"Impressive."

M'gann shifts back to her default form.

"But you know you're not exactly gunna fool anyone with those."

"Mimicking boys is a lot harder."

"And your clothes…"

Bad Aqualad! Bad! I was hoping no one else had noticed!

"They're organic, like the ship. They respond to my mental commands."

Uh? Wait, why was she so… Is shifting your skin like hanging around in pyjamas for a Human? And you put on actual clothes for company? Not somethingIdo now, as getting dressed takes a literal second with the ring.

"Can you do that ghosting through walls thing that Manhunter does?"

Wallace continues with his interest in everything M'gann.

"Density shifting? No… it's a very advanced technique."

"Flash can vibrate his molecules right through a wall. When he tries it? Bloody nose."

"Dude!"

Robin is definitely off Wallace's wingman list.

"I've heard that power rings are supposed to be able to do the same thing."

I surround my left hand in an orange aura and press it against the side of the ship.

"Nothing yet. Guess we've all something to work on."

M'gann extends her hands again and the control columns twist to reach her.

"Well, here's something I can do."

A dull thumm sounds through the ship.

"Camouflage mode."

The stealth on this ship is really good. Even knowing exactly where to look it's practically impossible to spot. Just hope no one shoots us with a paintball gun. Not sure how it compares to Wonder Woman's jet. OrangeVision bypasses both anyway.

"Red Tornado to Miss Martian. An emergency alert has been triggered at the Happy Harbor power plant. I suggest you investigate. Covertly. I'm sending co-ordinates."

"Received. Adjusting course."

Robin snorts.

"Tornado's keeping us busy again."

We're now over land. I haven't learned the geography of this part of the town yet, but I can see three slim white chimneys attached to an industrial building. Presumably, our target.

"Well, a simple fire led you to Superboy. We should find out what caused the alert."

M'gann sounds more positive. Superboy looks around.

"I think I know the cause."

Tornado? Why is there a t-. Supervillain. Of course. Couldn't be someone testing the fire alarm at the wrong time. M'gann takes evasive action. I doubt that they've seen us, but an area effect attack will still knock us silly.

Too late!


	26. 32

18th July

11:44 GMT-4

Ring, medium armour.

An orange flare and Peter Gambi's finest work replaces my casual clothing. Ceramic and steel hexes held together by dark greydyneemacover my joints and neck while larger plates protect my torso, arms and legs. I'm not sure what the padding material is made of but I barely felt it when he hit me in the chest with a baseball bat as a demonstration. The whole thing fits perfectly, protects against all of the forms of attack I specified and is wearable even without the ring maintaining my temperature. I'm not sure why, but he actually only wanted to charge me for materials. I was able to negotiate him up only once I said that I might be able to send colleagues his way.

A small holster on my left leg contains a ring-built pistol based on the Smith Wesson Model 63 I was practising with. This one is largely titanium with a tungsten-lined barrel. I switched to practising with it after I created it and I find it slightly superior to the standard model. I haven't tried forging specialised ammunition for it as the process looks complicated and would be a dead give away to any investigator if I ever used it.

My hands are bare, as is my head. My ability to perceive and interact with my environment is too vital for ring use to compromise for a minor increase in protection. Once I leave Earth I'll see about getting hold of a force field generator of some kind.

Orange Lantern sigils cover my front, back and shoulder plates in traditional superhero fashion.

My eyes glow orange as I activate my visual enhancements.

NO. FUCKING. TINY. MASK.

The precision tornado hits the ship and the view through the window shifts wildly. A electrical crackling noise marks the camouflage being overwhelmed and shutting down. The cyclonic acceleration has much less effect on the interior than it should have and with the ring active I don't even feel that. Everyone else is thrown against their harnesses with a yelp. Fortunately, M'gann keeps her head together and, using the tornado's own movement to gain speed, manages to pull us away. After getting to a safe distance she spins the ship around and brings us down in the car park. We're about a meter up when the floor swings open and the rest of the team drops to the tarmac. I'm left standing on the flap at ninety degrees to the ground as my deck clamp construct remains in effect. I try to style it out by disconnecting and spinning to a crouch but I don't think anyone noticed.

In the distance I can hear panicked screams and just make out people fleeing the power plant building. The tornado is on the side of the building away from us. If the goal was the destruction of the plant, wouldn't it make more sense to drop it directly on the building? I blink and eighty or so avarice loci mark the locations of the plant workers. Most have either evacuated or are in the process of doing so, the few others having been in the parts of the plant furthest from the exits. Or maybe one of them is the villain? I was sort of expecting them to stand out more, but to be honest I couldn't even guess which of them was causing this.

The tornado moves towards the corner of the building. Definitely directed.

"Robin? Are tornados common to New England?"

Aqualad may not have seen a tornado before. Heck, I've only seen recordings. Wait, where's Robin?

"Robin?!"

I hear a peel of laughter, like that which would be produced by Chucky in an unusually positive mood. Is that the villain? Is the tornado a distraction while he invisibly picks us off?

"He was just here."

Shit, the telepath can't find him?

"Ring, scan for Robin."

The windows blow out in the top floor of the building as the ring locates my errant team mate.

"He's in the-"

They are already running -or in M'gann's case flying- across the car park towards the loading bay. Nice to know she overcomes her reticence when necessary. Oh, right,catching up.

There is a woosh of air and a dull clang.

"Ugoh! Guh."

Superboy makes it inside first, followed by the others. Robin is already on the ground, rubbing his head. Superboy leaps.

Yeah, that's a supervillain. Huge, red and black, with some sort of exposed blue cables running from his back to his arms. And a scarf. Why does he have a scarf? It looks like he's wearing power armour.

Why aren't I detecting avarice? Is the armour blocking my scans? It might be, but I'd be surprised if any Earth technology was capable of doing that.

Superboy lands in a crouch next to Robin.

"Who's your new friend?"

"Didn't catch his name."

First step in a fight,armour. Orange plates -a bit like Mass Effect Tech Armour- congeal around my body. Last time Diana punched one she had to rub life back into her hand. Ivalue my own life and physical integrity quite highly, and the strength of my defensive constructs reflect that.

"But he plays kinda rough!"

"My apologies. You may address me as Mister Twister."

Superboy is already charging forwards. Mister Twister points his arms at the ground and creates a visible cyclone around each one? Is that possible? The wind reduces Superboy's forward movement to virtually nothing. Then Twister moves his hands and the wind lifts Superboy into the air, spinning him around.

Wow, that looks -CRASH MAT CRASH MAT!

It forms before he hits the wall, reducing an dangerous slam to a light bump. Another forms beneath him as he falls, cushioning his landing. He rights himself and vaults over the railing.

Kid Flash pulls a pair of goggles out of his trousers. Robin rises to his feet with a groan. Aqualad nods at M'gann, who nods back. Aqualad's hands crackle with electricity.

Was there a team attack strategy session I missed?

A look around shows me that the evacuation is complete. I suppose now we're trying to preserve vital infrastructure? There is no mention of a Mister Twister in any file I remember reading, and those the ring absorbed are similarly blank. What does he want?

My team mates charge. And I? I have no idea what to do. I just float here. How to do this? This is toostrange. I don't care enough about the fight to smash a guy who can brush off Superboy. Ireallydon't want to try converting him into a construct. I'd like to negotiate, but that opportunity seems to have passed.

Kid Flash gets into range first, and handplants for a super speed flying kick. Mr Twister brings his hands together and causes the air currents to throw him past his target and out of the back of the building.Another crash matfrom me catches him in mid air and safely deposits him on the ground outside.

Aqualad and M'gann get tossed around like dolls. Twister doesn't even have to move to knock them aside. I get asoft chairconstruct under each of them and pull them back to a safe distance. Superboy's attempt at a leaping attack just gives Twister more time to generate an air blast beneath him and send him up into the rafters.

What the heck is this room actually for?

I put a flight aura around Superboy as he starts to come back down, and bring him in for a controlled landing next to me. He shoots me an angry look.

"I was prepared to be challenged by a super hero. I was not however expecting children."

Has he not seen me? Or is he just assuming? I suppose the orange glow makes picking out facial characteristics harder. And M'gann does kind of have a 'youthful' body shape. Er, no offense if you're listening, M'gann.

Robin preps and throws two disks.

"We're not children!"

Two cyclones again. The first disk detonates just ahead of him, causing no damage. The second hits him in the chest and embeds in his armour before he reaches up and flicks it away. It detonates on his left, out of range.

"Objectively you are. Have you no adult supervision? I find your presence here quitedisturbing."

"Actually, not a, child, back here?"

I don't really want to draw his attention as I have no idea what I'd do with it, but I can't let a comment like that just…. go. I'm in a training team because I need training. Most of my team mates are younger because they started earlier.

"I mean, I'm not even the oldest member..."

Hmm. I suppose the infrastructure is safe from further damage as long as we hold his attention. And aside from Robin's attempt at being a solo artist none of us are hurt.

"Well we hate to see you disturbed. We'll see if you're more turbed once we kick your can!"

Are they all just going to rush him again? EvenVasknows that's dumb. And what the hell is turbed?

M'gann steps forwards, and uses telekinesis to rip open a metal… tank… that was stuck on the ceiling..? What nutter designed this place? Mister Twister is briefly wreathed in vapour, and Superboy uses the distraction to coveranotherleaping attack. A full air blast from our enemy sends him straight into a horizontal strut before I can grab him. He also manages to hit M'gann in the air before I get anothercrash matunder them both before they hit the ground.

This is getting really stupid. I'm no tactical genius or anything, but this is some seriously futile stuff.

Kid Flash and Robin charge just as my patience runs out. An omnidirectional airblast leads to the same mini tornado as Twister used on Superboy. To much the same effect, except that he takes the time to slam the two of them together before he stops it.

Reaching a decision,I grab Aqualad with a mailed gauntlet construct.

"Wha'?"

I bring him level with where I'm floating.

"You wanna come up with a plan, maybe tell your least experienced team mate what it is?"

He's actually struggling against the construct. What is his problem? When he realises that he can't get leverage he stops and turns his head to face me.

"You should be aiding us against the enemy."

I roll my eyes. Really?

"I shouldnothave to explain the necessity ofhavingaplanto the Atlantean Royal Champion!"

He starts, considers, then nods.

I drop the gauntlet.

"Can you hold him in place while we regroup?" he asks, "perhaps a chain or manacles."

No, 'cause those are solely dependant on construct strengthand I don't care enough. Sonic attack, try to disable? Aided by -Teen Titan flashback- effective misdirection? I don't have a better idea.

"Miss M'orzz, would you please take over catching duty!?"

She has just disentangled herself from Superboy.

"Uh, sure."

I raise my right arm, palm extended, and cause my hand to glow with bright orange light.Amplification please, ring.

"Would my team mates please stand clear of the target!"


	27. 33

18th July

11:50 GMT-4

Thatgot a reaction.

"Another child in need of an education."

He raises his arms to ward off a direct attack. But I have a power ring.

The only time Kyle Rayner ever impressed me as a Lantern was when, during a fight with Power Ring, he fired a beam behind him and then through the ground under his target. Still, typical Green Lantern, he never expanded the technique. Or maybe it was just bad writing?

Whatever. OrangeVision shows me that the narrow beam running from my right foot has undermined Mister Twister's position while he's staring at my hand. I still don't think I care enough to hit him hard enough directly…

Oh, that's good.

"Things will get loud, now."

Four beams of orange light erupt from the floor around him. Each one sprouts four sonic energy projectors and activates, with his centre of mass as the focal point. I remember reading during psychology A-Level that this is how ultrasound is used to destroy kidney stones; beams are focused from several different directions so that the stone where they meet is vibrated to nothingness while the other tissues are unharmed.

"Graawgh!"

His winds dissipate. His hands clutch at his head. I can see his armour vibrating. Wait, why is he clutching his head? The armour doesn't have ears, and I can't see external microphones.

Aqualad takes the initiative.

"Superboy, try pulling on his cables!"

Superboy looks up, nods, and then runs full speed at Mister Twister. He isn't Kid Flash, but his strength gives him quite a turn of speed. He pounds across the room, jumps past my constructs and -

"Ghuaaaagh!"

-barrels straight into Mister Twister's chest, screaming in pain. Mister Twister was knocked backwards by the impact.

What? What happened?

He drops to the ground, clutching his head. What?

My sonic constructs dissipate as I switch my attention to recovering Superboy. When he feels the stretcher construct touch him he flails at it. Even from the other side of the room I can see blood on his hands.

I want him safe.

Tentacle constructs wrapping around him I dump Superboy onto the stretcher and swiftly move it behind the rear wall. He's in a foetal position, still clutching his ears. An ambulance won't work, I'll need to contact Red Tornado-

"Surprisingly intelligent, for a youth."

Huh?

I hear a vacuum sound.

Arrhhh!

Can't see!

Twister!

Waaaaahh!

Can't concentrate to fly!

Blauhoabaubauabuao!

Doafh!

Slamming through something, I hit the ground.

Uuuuugh.

I threw up inside my shield! Oh, that's disgusting. The ring automatically takes care of all of the vomit that left my mouth, but the bile still fills my throat. I retch and splutter, trying to clear the rest of it.

"Ring, fix it."

Oh that's better. I can still taste a bit, ugh, but I'm now feeling less revolting.

!Superboy!

I struggle to my feet and then immediately collapse down. The world spins as I roll onto my back in the earth. Earth? Trees? I must have cleared the car park.

"Ring, inner ear."

Even in a state of confusion my desire for self preservation remained. Otherwise, my shield would have gone down and the wind blast would probably have killed me. I try to rise again. Yep, fine, good work ring. I quickly check myself for injuries, then realise that's stupid.

Wholeness Rightly Assumed.

I'm at a sharp angle from the entrance to the power plant. I can see Superboy on the ground, but I can't see the others. I can hear them, though. Explosions and shouts.

!Superboy!

Superboy!

I'm at his side in seconds. He's still moaning. I lay a hand on his forearm and he knocks me away with enough force to weaken my shield.

"Ring, what's wrong with him?"

"Numerous physical defects detected. Current primary physical injury is the result of ruptured ear drums."

"Can you fix it?"

"Not without further physiological data for target species."

"Can't you just… just… work it out?"

"Suggested course of action is possible, but unwise."

Don't mess with people's bodies if you don't know what you're doing.

"Painkillers. Can you stop it hurting him?"

"Compliance."

A thin orange tether connects the ring to Superboy. He gasps, and stops moaning. He looks up at me, and pushes himself to his feet.

"What happened?"

He looks shocked for a moment.

"What happened!"

From shocked to scared.

He claps his hands together, loudly, then again right against his left ear.

"Why can't I hear anything!"

"You've got ruptured ear drums. You won't be able to hear anything until you've had medical attention. Wo… can you hear me?"

"Yes!"

"Okay, okay, I think the ring is interfaced with your auditory nerves. Mister Twister is still up and I-"

He bounds away, leaping around towards the other side of the building where our team mates are fighting.

Ear drums ruptured. Sonic attack. Super hearing.

It was me.

He went past my constructs, got hit by the sonic energy and his ears exploded. Oh god. Oh god.

Move.

Move.

Move. Move. Move.

I begin jogging, not trusting my ability to fly yet.

It was me. I might have permanently deafened him.

My shield flickers and weakens.

As I round the corner of the building I hear a grunt as Superboy is sent flying into a car, the force of the impact sliding it backwards.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm waiting for arealhero."

"Read his mind. Find a weakness!"

Won't work, Aqualad.

"Er, I thought I wasn't supposed to do that?"

"It's okay with the bad guys!"

I reach the ruins of the car Superboy hit as he pulls himself free.

"Nothing. I'm getting nothing!"

Mister Twister is airborne, clearly dismissing us. Icouldhit him, but right now myconcern for Superboyis crowding out my other desires.

M'gann strikes the side of her head with the base of her palm.

"Hello, Megan! Mister Twister is Red Tornado in disguise."

Um, no?

"He's inorganic. An android. But how many androids do you know that can generate tornados?"

Probably a lot? Haven't you read the intelligence files? If you can make one…

"Red Tornado sent us here!"

Nonono Aqualad, not the avalanche of stupid…

"After saying we'd 'be tested soon enough'?"

Robin?

"This is his test! Something to keep us busy!"

Ring. Locate Red Tornado.

I get a momentary vision of him back at the base, staring to the main computer terminal.

"Red Tornado's still at the base! It isn't him!"

They stare at me, thought train derailed.

"Thank you for the information. Perhaps this will tempt Achilles from his tent."

He raises his arms above his head. Two funnels of air form, but they aren't directed at us. What's he..?

The skies darken.

No. Fucking. Way.

A swirling storm forms around him while he stands at the eye. Away from the edge, bright sunny day. Here, it's working up to hurricane force.

Superboy tries walking in a crouch towards the source of the attack.

No. That won't work.

A glow andI've grabbed him and I'm flying towards the others. We land in the centre of the group.

Lightning begins crackling around Mister Twister.

I see worried and fraught faces. My allies.

I fucked up with Superboy, but I'm not failing again.

An orange bubble forms around the group. I hold my arms outwards, palms towards the centre of the storm.

I. Will. Not. Fail.

Krackompf!

I feel the shield stress as the lightening hits. As the afterimage burns my retina I can see the orange membrane ripple like water where it was struck.

Krackompf!

I don't know what to do.

I don't know what to do.

I don't know what to do.

"I can't tank this forever!"

M'gann looks thoughtful.

Mister Twister floats down towards us, crackling with power. And then he stops.

"Fine then. I won't deny that you children have power. But playing hide and seek with you will not help me achieve my objectives."

What?

"So stay concealed.If you confront me again I will. Show. No. Mercy."

What?

OrangeVision

The bioship is floating between us and Twister, camouflage active. He can't see us, so he's breaking off.

Heh. He flies standing up too.

HeH hEh HeH.


	28. 34

18th July

11:56 GMT-4

Wallace recovers from his surprise first.

"What happened?"

"I placed the bioship between us and the camouflage made it look like we weren't here."

Ring, charge?

Eighty seven percent remaining.

"What happened!"

"M'gann just said, the bioship-"

I hold up my left hand towards Wallace.

"Superboy is temporarily deafened. Ring,share my hearing with him."

"Compliance."

"Superboy, you should be able to hear what I'm hearing."

"It's working."

Relief.

"Good, good."

His face hardens.

"It's not good!"

He thrusts his face towards mine. I raise my hands in a surrender motion.

"Okay, I'm sorry, poor choice of words. It's a useful temporary fix until we can get you to a medical facility."

He turns to the others.

"And why were you all just standing there anyway!"

M'gann looks at the ground.

"I thought… I couldn't read his mind…"

Aqualad steps up.

"M'gann mistakenly assumed that as she could read neither Red Torando's mind nor Mister Twister's that they were most likely the same person. Given the similarity in their abilities…"

"Why would Red Tornado attack us! I can't hear because of him!"

God….

"No, no, I.. I'm sorry, that was me."

"What?!"

"When you jumped through the sonic constructs I was using to attack Mister Twister, you… I didn't turn them off. You took a glancing blow which appears to have-"

"AAAAAGH!"

He slams his fist into the ground, sending up a plume of asphalt and dust.

Robin turns to me.

"What were you doing at the start of the fight, anyway?"

"Waiting for someone to come up with a plan."

Wallace chimes in.

"Yeah, bit slow off the mark there weren't you, Oh El?"

"Slow and steady may not win the race, but it does result in my team mates not being smashed into the walls. Or did you think those crash mats were appearing by magic?"

Aqualad places a hand on their shoulders.

"This is not a productive avenue of discussion. Our first engagement with the enemy has not gone as we would have hoped. And Orange Lantern is correct. We should have had a plan before attacking."

They relax, the tension of the fight draining from their frames. Superboy still looks ready to rip me in half.

"Is this permanent?!"

Review.

"No. The ring says that sort of injury is usually healed in a couple of months."

"Months!"

"I can probably speed it up once I've had a better look at your auditory systems. I don't… I'm sorry, I don't remember Kryptonian regeneration rates."

M'gann looks up.

"I'm sorry, I just though it was him. It just madesense."

Aqualad waits until he catches her eye.

"It was a rookie mistake. But you and Orange Lanternarerookies, and we should not have accepted your opinion as fact without checking."

"As long as you're within few hundred meters I can probably replace your ears with a construct. As a temporary measure, as a temporary measure!"

I make a placating gesture. He's still visibly fuming.

"That was partially my fault as well."

No?

"Aqualad, it really wasn't."

"I should have taken your inexperience into account before limited my instruction to Superboy to a simple order to attack. And I should have recognised the form of weapon you were using."

"Do it."

"What?"

"The ears. Give me… orange ears."

Don't laugh don't laugh don't laugh don't laugh.

"Ring, do it."

The strand of orange connecting us gets broader for a moment. The construct doesn't show, as it's inside his head.

"I can't promise that it's Kryptonian quality… best test it out to get used to it. And, look,I am really sorry and Iamgoing to fix this."

He looks away.

"Mmf."

Aqualad steps back, causes the rest of us to form a near circle facing him.

"Before we engage Mister Twister again, weneedaplan."

Hate to say this…

"Should we notify Red Tornado?"

"No! If we do that then we'restilljust kids!"

Wallace is not enthused. Hey, I wonder what thused means?

"I'm not saying ask him to take over. Just tell him what's happening, and that we're in pursuit."

Wallace goes to complain again so I pre-emptively interrupt him.

"It's not about us looking good! If he heads to Happy Harbour and starts dropping buildings on people 'cause we were too proud to ask for help, that's on us!"

Aqualad thinks for a moment.

"I agree with Orange Lantern. We should keep him informed."

No further objections? Good.

"I don't really have anything else to contribute, planwise. I'll let him know."

I step away from the group.

Ring, open a channel to Red Tornado.

Compliance.

A small orange image of Red Tornado appears before me.

"Sir. I confirm that the attack on the power plant was the work of a supervillain. They identify themselves as 'Mister Twister'. Red and Black power armour, able to generate intense winds. A bit like you do, actually. Since neither M'gann or I could get a reading on his mind he's probably either a simple AI or… what we fought was being remote controlled."

The ringdoesread Red Tornado. Not much, certainly not compared to the rest of us, but he definitely wants things for himself.

"He's broken away from us in the direction of the main harbour area. We'll be pursuing shortly."

"Message received."

He bows his head slightly.

"It is an odd coincidence that this 'Twister' shares my elemental abilities."

"I hadn't thought anything of it. Supervillains seem to like playing king-of-the-hill with someone who has abilities similar to their own. Though, if you don't mind me asking, sir? Might he have been built by the same person who built you? Or based on those plans?"

A pause.

"It is possible. I will attempt to investigate. Continue pursuit. If you believe you are in danger of being overwhelmed, contact me again and I will take over."

"Understood sir. Orange Lantern out."

The image disappears.

Why are the others all looking at me?

"What? Did I say something wrong?"

M'gann seems happier…

"Supervillains like playing king-of-the-hill against people with abilities like theirs!"

Do they ever! Those files made depressing reading. The same wasteful idiocy again and again.

"Yes?"

Aqualad smiles.

"Then we have our distraction."


	29. 35

18th July

12:08 GMT-4

We're back in the bioship, heading for the harbour under camouflage. Aqualad has taken the seat at M'gann's left with Robin on her right. Wallace and Superboy are at the front. I'm leaning on the hull between Robin and Wallace. Seriously, either M'gann needs to move the command position back or we need another forward seat.

"Just one other thing. When the Justice League take someone like this on they use Misterr J'onzz's telepathy to co-ordinate without being overheard. M'gann and I have… what?"

Robin, Wallace and Superboy all look at Aqualad, who flicks his eyes to the deck for a moment before looking back at me.

"Other members of the team, myself included, are not entirely comfortable with that form of mental contact."

Really? Odd.

"You do realise that Aquaman, Batman, Superman and The Flash have all used it, right? I doubt Batman's keen on people knowing what he's thinking."

I try to catch Robin or Kid Flash's eye. Robin focuses on putting on his utility belt. Bright yellow? Wallace does a deer in headlight impression.

"It's not… I mean, I dotrustM'gann-"

His eyes flick to her.

"- but isn't it… don't you find it… like… weird..?"

M'gann decides to interject.

"On Mars, telepathic communication is completely normal. Until this morning it didn't even occur to me that it might be a problem for some people. If you don't want to use my telepathy for the team, I'll understand. But, I would never use it to hurt you. It would be prevocal only. I wouldn't go any deeper, or do anything else."

This morning?

"What happened this morning?"

Superboy is now facing directly away from me, arms folded across his chest. Robin looks at him, the Wallace.

"M'gann used telepathy on Superboy earlier. Kinda reminded him of Cadmus."

Superboy turns back to us.

"I'm not having anyone go through my head again!"

"Yeah, well I don't want an opponent to thank me for information in the middle of a fight ever again!"

M'gann looks at him sadly.

"Superboy…"

Aqualad interjects.

"For myself, I must say that I found the experience quite disorienting."

"Really? When we tried it it didn't feel much different to wearing an earpiece radio."

Robin starts.

"You've tried it before?"

"In the base, yes. I wanted to know what it felt like. It was like hearing a voice that doesn't come from anywhere in particular."

I pause as I remember some of the things I thought about to see if M'gann would hear them. Nothing beyond a twelve rating, mind.

"Unless I deliberately thought a particular phrase at her, it didn't go anywhere. Not much different to speaking."

Lets face it, if she'd been probing, she would definitely have said something about the whole comic book thing. And most likely completely freaked out.

They're trying to gauge each other's feelings.

"Some of the stuff we're planning requires perfect timing and co-ordination between us when we can't see each other. Unless someone brought tornado proof radios..?"

A shallow inclination of the head from Aqualad and Robin. Wallace averts his eyes, choosing not to argue the point. Superboy maintains his scowl for the longest.

"Fine."

We're coming up on the bay. I can see three large twisters doing their best to level the waterfront. Can't see Mister Twister himself from this distance. One of the tornados moves out along a wooden jetty, throwing several small motorboats into the air.

*Testing, testing, one two, one two.*

I see the other guys wince. Babies.

*M'gann, would you mind asking the ship to let me out? I'd like to shield the evacuation.*

M'gann nods, and a small opening grows in the floor next to me. I see the effect of the wind on the other guys clothing and hair.

"Geronimo."

I step into the hole, and fall towards the ground. Catching myself, I speed ahead of the ship into the danger zone.

Ring,where's Twister?

I am treated to a zoomed image of Mister Twister standing next to a fountain, arms outstretched.

*Guys, he's by the fountain.*

I try thinking the picture at them. Not sure if it works. Now, time to make myself useful. The boats which the air currents picked up have reached the apex of their flight and have begun their swift return journey to earth. Can't be having that. Aflight auracatches the first one and brings it safely to rest on the roadside verge. Twister looks up at me.

"See, whenever I played Command and Conquer, I'd always try to take the enemy base intact. Seemed like such a waste to just bring in artillery and level the place."

I catch two more boats and hold them in the air for a moment before placing them on the ground a street away.

"Pointless destruction. What is this supposed to be in aid of?"

"It was supposed to attract the required attention."

"Really? Most supervillains try to pretend it isn't just about attention seeking."

"Good news for ya: you've got ours, full and undivided."

Wallace runs at full speed down the main road and jump kicks Twister in the chest, pushes off and lands in a crouch. Twister staggers backwards. I'm a bit surprised that worked, to be honest. Hopefully this attack will force him to focus on us for a bit. I use the time to grab some of the larger bits of airborne debris and thrust them to the ground in a heap away from us. Wow, this place is a mess. Looks like a tornado went straight through a large wooden house. I can see the ruined boards that used to be the outer wall, but also the insides of someone's life: sheets, curtains, a couple of picture frames. What looks like a soft chair. No one has died but a life has been destroyed.Pointless pointless pointless.

"Immaterial and insufficient."

He raises his hands is Wallace's direction.

"You are a distraction I can no longer tolerate."

"Aaaaaaaaaagghhhh!"

Superboy narrowly misses landing directly on top of him. Had his attack connected this would probably have been a very short fight. Twister thrusts himself backwards through the air, trying to gain the space and time he needs to counterattack. You know what?Fuck that guy.

I form a circular orange construct around his eyepiece. It doesn't damage him, but it does keep him off balance while I fire and orange cutting beam at his left leg. And… oh, that's where that tornado went. It was coming in behind me but they aren't exactly quiet and they aren'tallthat high. I just climb above it, though my vision-obscuring construct and beam drop when I do. Our attempts to attract his attention are succeeding. Each of the pre-existing tornados is dying off without Twister making the effort to sustain it.

Down below I see Twister float up another boat and thrust it at Superboy.No, you don't. Another safe boat, and he has to backpedal to avoid Superboy's lunge. Maybe we should see about getting Superboy some actual fight training? I know that Black Canary is a skilled martial artist, but some techniques just aren't efficient for someone that strong. Maybe Diana could..?

As Robin and Aqualad enter the combat zone, Iactivate OrangeVision to scan for remaining civilian presence. No, everyone is clear. Oh, for goodness…Crash mat.

*It doesn't have to lookthatgood, Aqualad.*

*It is not always an easy matter to judge.*

I drop him onto the balcony of the house he nearly rammed into, and he jumps back down to ground level. Wallace is momentarily caught in a windblast, but recovers well and dashes out of range. Robin throws an explosive at a dying tornado close to his position and then pelts Mister Twister with the rest. Twister clears the space around him with another airblast but then takes a glancing blow from Superboy, who took advantage of his distraction. His retaliation blasts Superboy high into the air. I go to grab him but Twister leaves the cyclone in place and I can't get a clear acquisition!

!MINE!

I won't let him get hurt again!

The ring glows brightly and discharges a powerful beam straight atSuperboy. Punching through the cyclone it strikes his right side. Glowing orange armour similar to my own manifests just before he slams into the concrete quay. Another boat swiftly follows and I lose sight of him.

I drop down to the impact sight just as the largest piece of boat wreckage shakes and lifts. With a growl Superboy throws it at Mister Twister, who nonchalantly catches it with a wind and hurls it at Aqualad.

Did Aqualad just run up a flying boat?

*I'm coming in now.*

The idea of having M'gann assume the form of Red Tornado seemed so obvious once Aqualad explained it to me. Presumably a Justice League member counts as a 'real hero' for his purposes. I was surprised that she could get that much bigger, but apparently she can spread herself out.

M'gann lands in front of the regrouped team. I drop down behind them, still just off the ground.

"Hit the showers, boys. I was hoping you could handle this. Clearly, you cannot."

She sounds just like him. I wonder if Wallace 'Casanova' West is paying attention? Reminds me of that character from the Marvel series, Runaways. The Skrull shapeshifter who thought nothing of changing his gender on a semi permanent basis to pursue a relationship with a lesbian. Is that something Martians do? Maybe M'gann was a M'rikk before watching 'Hello, Megan'? Maybe I shouldn't mention that to anyone ever.

Robin makes a token protest.

"But we've got a plan now."

"The subject is not up for debate."

I put on a sullen expression, but I honestly doubt that Twister is actually looking at me. As per the plan, I need to get out of Mister Twister's line of sight. Once I'm out of his immediate field of vision I just the ring to get behind the roof of one of the still intact houses. I then turn down my environmental shield to minimum and activate OrangeVision.

*Orange Lantern in position*

I wasn't lying about the Command and Conquer thing. But if I can't take something intact…

Ring, full scan of Mister Twister.

Compliance. At current avarice levels a full quintessence waveform scan will take approximately twelve minutes.

That sounds like more information than I need.How about enough information to build the physical components?

No power ring disrupting technology detected in target. Physical scan complete.

Superboy's walking away more slowly, trying to stay in leaping distance. I try to turn the armour construct off, but no luck. My guilt over injuring him is overpowering my desire to follow the plan. It seems that the problem Alan pointed out is a real one, but it shouldn't matter too much here. I've just had to transfer the wiggly orange line connecting us underground so as not to give away my position. Wallace has just ducked behind the remains of a larger boat hull, ready for his part in assisting M'gann in pretending to be Red Tornado.

*Superboy ready.*

*Kid Flash ready.This still feels weird.*

Aqualad walks along the shore until he has some cover, then slips into the water.

"I was beginning to believe you'd never show up."

*Aqualad ready*

"I'm here now."

Theycanstart fighting with Kid Flash in place, but ideally M'gann can keep Twister talking until Robin-

*Robin here. All set.*

Alrighty then.

M'gann-as-Red Tornado gestures, and Kid Flash is no longer in his hiding place. OrangeVision gives me his approximate location however: in the centre of 'Red Tornado's' tornado. M'gann gestures, and the tornado moves forwards. Mister Twister slides backwards, then matches it with a tornado of his own.

They sort of bounce off each other in a way which strikes me as unrealistic. Wouldn't two real cyclones merge? Maybe it's to do with the methods employed in generating them? I have no idea how Wallace can stand that without getting dizzy.

It also occurs to me that someone with an anti-material rifle could probably take down either Mister Twister or 'Red Tornado' from outside their range at this point. Note to self: practice offensive constructs before next fight. And buy the local police some decent guns.

Mister Twister thrusts a tornado in M'gann's direction, only for it to dissipate before it reaches her. Telekinesis, I presume.

"We're evenly matched, Twister."

A new tornado forms behind her and hurls rocks at Twister, who blocks by hammering his left fist into the ground and creating an incredibly intense updraft.

"No Tornado we are not."

His hands crackle for a moment then a massive electrical discharge blasts from his hands at M'gann. She leaps aside, floats backwards and around before blocking his line of sight with a boat, which is struck and explodes.

He managed that with no preparation. That is actually scary. I'm not sure M'gann could take that hit. Looks like she agrees, as she's used the boat's explosion as cover for 'losing'. Falling onto her back away from the blast, she plays possum.

This is where we find out if we're going to win. Just in case I prepare a force beam. Robin's in support range close by in case something goes wrong with this stage, but no sense taking chances. Aqualad's voice comes in over the mind link.

*On your signal, M'gann.*

Twister closes the distance to M'gann as soon as he sees her go down. He wait for a moment, then raises his right arm.

"Remain still android."

Some sort of cable projects out of his fingers and attaches to M'gann's head. Huh. We didn't know that was precisely what he wanted. Really we were just hoping for a bit of distracted posing which would allow M'gann to grab him.

"The reprogramming won't take long."

Worth knowing. Should probably advise Red Tornado to improve his skull armour.

M'gann grabs his cables.

*Attack is go.*

"Longer than you might think."

"No."

A telekinetic surge knocks him off his feet, and leaves half his cables in M'gann's hand.

*Oh El moving.*

I'm already moving over the roof as tornado Wallace catches him in mid air and throws him over M'gann's head. He flips right over as he lands and runs right into a still orange armoured Superboy. A targeting construct appears in front of me. Superboy punches him once, then grapples his left arm. Perfect. Two circular saw constructs neatly sever the cables on Twister's back while he's stationary, and two small drill constructs hit the mechanisms in his forearms which generate his attacks. No more air blasts or flying for you. Superboy then yanks the arm downwards and twists sharply. I see metal crunch and crumble as he pulls the ruined limb down and swings a fist at Twisters head, which crumples and sparks.

*Aqualad moving up*

We couldn't predict precisely how Twister would move, so Aqualad took the sea side on the grounds that it would be easiest for him to move in response to changes in circumstance. With Twister's main attack offline he uses his hilt thingys -must find out what they are called- to form a waterspout beneath him and propel him inland to join the attack. I aim my saws at Twister's right elbow as Aqualad runs one water-sword through his neck -severing the head- and the other into Twister's shoulder to anchor himself.

Aqualad wasn't too happy about decapitation, but eventually I was able to convince him that either the head was for show -in which case the head didn't matter- or it was an AI -in which case the decapitation probably didn't matter, as the mind would inside the chest or have an emergency power supply-.

Head gone and both arms out of commission, Superboy shoulder barges his legs out from under him and knocks him down. Aqualad and I begin cutting through the armour of his chest plate. He's already lost, but if there is someone in there weneed to get them out of the catastrophically damaged power armour as soon as possible.

Looks like the guy inside has decided the same thing. The whole chests blows open and moves aside, revealing a humanoid in a green and white jumpsuit. I think it was supposed to look human but the metal skeleton is clearly showing at the chest and the left side of the head. I hear Robin, Wallace and M'gann move up to us.

Ring, confirm that target has no organic components?

Confirmed.

It falls forwards onto the grass.

"Foul. Ah I call foul."

How to we securely imprison a robot of unknown capabilities? I don't remember a characters like this from the comics. On the other hand, most things you stick on the Moon tend to stay put. M'gann raises an arm to the side. Not sure where she's going with-what the hell?

I get a barrier in place just before M'gann's rock crushes the inner robot.

"What the hell?"

"Y y y you can't do that to me!"

"But its not alive!"

"I am alive!"

Either he doesn't know he's a robot, or he hasn't realised the extent of the damage.

"M'gann, would you drop a rock on Red Tornado?"

"Of course not! Oh."

"Yes, 'oh'."

"But you said that you couldn't feel his desires?"

"It's perfectly possible to build a sophisticated AI that doesn't desire things for itself."

"Ah, not a robot here?"

Wallace is nonplussed.

"Dude, you're totally a robot."

"I… I amnot."

He surveys us, inadvertently showing off his bare metal skull to best advantage. Maybe it's the adrenaline talking, but I'm having trouble not laughing.

"You got a bit of a-"

I gesture to the left side of my face.

"-bit of a scrape there."

"Oh."

He reaches up.

"Well, dang."

"Anyone know the protocol for imprisoning-"

The robot's torso glows for a second, then it explodes. Istick a shieldin the way as the parts rain down. For a moment we watch them in silence. Once they finish I drop the shield.

"Well, now I feel kind of silly for protesting."

Wallace steps forward and picks up one of the larger parts. It's an eyeball.

"Cool. Souvenir."


	30. 36

18th July

12:38 GMT-4

I've dropped the remaining parts of Mister Twister off in Red Tornado's workshop, after Robin checked them for traps and communication devices. I should probably have helped with the clear up in the harbour, but the Federal Emergencies Management Authority is apparently quite good at this sort of thing now, andSuperboy's injury takes priority. He's in medical until they can get one of the handful of people in the world who actually know anything about Kryptonian physiology in to have a look at him.

Mark Desmond would have been first choice, except that he's now an unstable mentally degraded monster and in prison. His staff are either in prison, or dodged prison by claiming that Desmond had the telepathic G-Gnomes control their behaviour and that they can't remember much about what happened. For some of them that may even be true. That pretty much just leaves STAR Labs, as the LexCorp personnel who have similar knowledge can't be trusted even if they were willing to help. And STAR lab's go to guy -someone namedDoctor Bernard Klein- is on holiday and can't be reached.

Without an enemy to focus on Superboy has remembered exactly why he's in the state he is. This is why I'moutsideof medical cramming information on his physiology with a thin orange line feeding into the ward to maintain his auditory construct. I was finally able to drop the armour construct after Red Tornado pointed out that it would interfere with examination and treatment.

Ring glowing brightly from the strength of myneed to fix my mistake, I float three constructs into the air in front of me. Superboy's body is… it isn't that half of the organs are Human, or half of the cells. Intellectually, I realised that there had to be more to it than that. Some cell types are purely Human with what the ring tells me is an artificial add on to make the body recognise it as being 'his'. Other parts -mostly skin and major muscles- are largely Kryptonian, with a similar add on for a similar purpose. Other parts are a weird mix of the two, including a number of actual hybrid body tissues. Again, with material not normally found in Humans or in my one Kryptonian sample holding it together.

And the ring tells me that not all of the parts work together properly. It's especially concerned about neurotransmitters and his immune system. No, I'm concerned. The ring just indicated that there might be a problem. I remember reading about Ligers; how despite their massive size and physical power they are actually often really unhealthy. The potential for seeing something like that in my team mate is quite worrying.

M'gann leaves the ward. Superboy wanted to speak to her. He didn't tell me what it was about, but she went in worried and now seems happier.

"What's that?"

"A model of the Human inner ear."

Lex Luthor's, in point of fact. The genetics of the Human parts do indeed mostly match his.

"And that other one?"

"Kryptonian inner ear. Did you know that Superman is in Zimbabwe?"

"You… you scanned him in Zimbabwe from here?"

"No. When I scanned him he was in Mongolia."

She doesn't ask me what the third is; the damage is too obvious. It wasn't just his ear drum that was ruptured. Other parts that match those found in Superman and are presumably responsible for super hearing are damaged or destroyed. Worse, it appears to have been a hybrid system and with Superboy's bizarre tissue types I can't tell how much of what was there came from which parts of his make up.

I have made some progress in understanding the source of Kryptonian super powers, though really it just means proving the supposition of Doctor Klein.Somethinghappens to Kryptonian skin organelles when they are exposed to certain light wavelengths. The range and concentration requirements appear to be quite specific, which matches what I observed in the comics. The organelles responsible are also found in other body tissues but in much lower concentrations, presumably why they were considered lower priority. The organelles respond with a form of exotic energy the ring doesn't recognise, which in turn doessomethingto strong nuclear forces... Aaaagh!Why doesn't the ring have a full database!

None of that really explains why they didn't just program a full Superman clone. I don't remember much about Bizarro, but Luthor never seemed to had much trouble using him. That's from Justice League Unlimited and that thing where Alexander Luthor Junior sets up a supervillain society. There isn't a Bizarro here yet, so there is a gap for one…

"Any progress?"

I put the heel of my palms on my forehead, and move them in a circling motion.

"Sort of? I don't think I can recreate what was there, but I think I know enough to create a working replacement."

"Why can't you replace it?

"Because I don't know what was there. Superboy's body has both Kryptonian and Human elements, and without a scan of what was destroyed…"

"Human?"

"Yeah, that's why he can't… wait, you didn't know that?"

"That's not… how is that possible?"

"I don't know. I mean, the ring can pick up artificial alterations to his tissue which seem to make it all work together, but where they came from? No idea."

"But I thought he was a clone of Superman?"

"Yes, his Kryptonian parts are. And other parts are Human, and some bits don't match any species…"

Genomorphs.Ring?

Partial match confirmed.

Doesn't seem to help. I could grab Cadmus' full database, but I don't know enough about biology to do anything complicated.

"Actually, M'gann, I wanted to ask you about something. As far as I know there are no Martian doctors on Earth either. Would you mind if I did a full scan of you as well?"

"Uncle J'onn has medical training."

"Mister J'onzz hasbasicmedical training. The League's current plan in casehegets seriously ill or injured involves getting a Martian doctoron Marsto consult via the Watchtower's FTL comms. We… this is high risk work we do. If you get hurt in the field I can't just rush you to the nearest hospital.I need to be able to treat you on-site."

She isn't smiling now. She looks at the ground, and breathes out heavily.

"Okay."

I keep working on Superboy's new ears.

"Thank you."

"What do you need me to do?"

"I need you to not hit me for doing it fifteen minutes ago."

"Fifteen..!"

"I scanned the others as well. Also, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern."

"Why?"

"I hate people I care about being hurt and not being able to do anything about it. My Nan-"

Where didthatcome from? I stop for a moment.

"Having this ringshouldmean that I can do anything I want. I wanted,I want to heal Superboy, but I can't because even though I had two weeks I never thought to scan him.Never again."

I flick my eyes to the side. She's staring at me. I tense as she puts her hand on my shoulder.

"It's…"

She doesn't know what to say.

"Should your ring be glowing like that?"

So say something else?

"Yes. The glow reflects the strength of my avarice. Iwant to heal Superboy, but I can't, because I don't know how to enact my desire. So nothing happens and it keeps glowing."

"Oh."

Her hand slips off.

"Superboy said that he'd like to speak to you."

I nod, distractedly, and drop the constructs.

"Right. I'm pretty much done with this. Time to face the music."

I rise and enter the ward.


	31. 37

18th July

12:41 GMT-4

Superboy is sitting on a bed with his back against the headboard. His legs are bent up and his arms are stretched around his knees. He appears to be staring at his feet, and doesn't look up when I walk in. The surly teenager image is somewhat thrown by the orange strands feeding from the ring into his head like some kind of set of science fiction headphones.

"Right… I think I've got a solution."

He fidgets, slightly.

"I don't, I'm sorry, but I don't know enough about your ears original structure to recreate them, but the ring has picked up enough about Kryptonian genetics now that Ishould be able to create a copyof Superman's-"

He looks up, his expression neutral.

"-with your genetic markers. You might… you should probably avoid loud noises for a few days while you adjust."

"What'd' you mean,genetic markers? I'm a clone of Superman. There shouldn'tbeany differences."

He doesn't know. What were the League thinking, not telling him?

"Okay, look, while I was trying to work out how to fix this, I had to study the way your body works, the way his body works. I think I found out some things you don't know. I don't think you're going to like them, so if you just want me to fix your ears then shut up, I'll do that."

He's gone back to looking away.

"I wanna know."

"Alright."

I pull up a chair and turn it to face the bed. I sit.

"Do you want me to do that talk first, or should I repair your ears first?"

"Ears."

I nod.

"I'm afraid that the first stage involves removing the constructs that I've currently got doing the job. I'll still be suppressing the nerves so you won't feel any pain, but you won't actually be able to hear anything until I've finished building the new parts. Once I've done that, I'll connect the nerves, with a construct to limit the volume so that the sound is bearable. Then, I'll slowly remove the construct. If it gets too loud, or starts to hurt, let me know and I'll stop, alright?"

"Mpf."

Ring, erase my mistake.

The ring is perfectly capable to transmuting the material it needs from the surrounding air. Probably wouldn't work for precious metals due to the density and high levels of avarice required, but for healing a team mate I injured? Easy. The inner ear components are literally just copies of Superman's. I don't understand how they work, but then I don't need to. Any idiot can copy and paste.

"Have you started yet?"

The volume is a little loud, but at least he isn't shouting. He looks at me. Time to test his hearing.

"Everything is now in place. I have just stopped suppressing the auditory nerves."

His hands slam over his ears, an action which causes him more pain.

"Ghuh!"

"They're super sensitive at the moment, but should basically adjust on their own in a few minutes. You coping?"

He nods slowly, clearly still in pain. This is reminding me of something. What is it?

"This reminds me of a story I heard about why Superman stopped going to chapel. Don't know if it's true or not…"

He's looking at me, and his hands a clamped a little less tightly.

"His super powers came in as he grew up. When he was in his mid-teens, his super hearing came in with a vengeance. He could cope with small groups of people, even loud noises once he'd had a moment to adjust. Lots of quiet conversations at once? It was to much."

"Then what..?"

He winces again.

"Then what happened?"

"No idea. As far as I can tell, he has much better control now."

I think it was from a comic? Something about a cult giving a guy superpowers, and a woman who decided that Superman was an angel. It was a while ago, and it wasn't that memorable.

"Anyway, your new ears. You'll have to be a bit careful navigating around, as sounds won't echo quite like you've gotten used to."

He nods.

"Oh-"

No wince, but a slight pause.

"-okay."

"Now, the other stuff you wanted to know. How blunt do you want me to be?"

"Just, tell me!"

"Okay, ahm, you aren't a pure clone of Superman. About half of you is Kryptonian, maybe a bit more. The rest is Human, with a tiny bit of Genomorph added to make the whole thing work together."

He's slumped, and isn't making eye contact.

"That's why I'm weak."

"Well… it's… it's why you don't have the full range of Kryptonian abilities, yes. I don't claim to understand exactly how they work, but it looks like some of the effects generated by your Kryptonian organelles don't propagate fully to the Human components of your body. I mean,-"

I form constructs depicting parts his body to illustrate my point.

"-those are clearly Kryptonian photoreceptive organelles. That's clearly a Human myelin sheath. Some of this other stuff… I don't know. I've no idea how they made it, and I haven't foundanythingsimilar to the Genomorphs. If I had to guess, I'd say they were entirely artificial. For you, they're bridging components to make the other parts work together."

"What does that mean?"

"I d, I don, I don't know? I'm not medically trained. Look, I can give this to the League, if you want. See what they can make of it."

"Why?"

"What?"

"Why didn't they make me…"

He crosses his arms across his chest.

"Properly?"

"If you mean as a complete clone… I… I don't know. Maybe they couldn't?"

I feel a bit like I should complain on behalf of the Human specie here, but I don't have the heart.

"I thought… I thought I'd get the rest. If I waited."

"I'm sorry, but I don't think that's going to happen."

He draws his legs up towards his chest.

"If it had been Superman…"

"If what had been Superman?"

"Against Mister Twister. If it had been Superman. He wouldn't have gone down like I did."

"You know he's tough, rather thanliterallyinvulnerable, right? Sonic attacks are one of his few vulnerabilities as well."

"It doesn't… I should have done better!"

"None of us exactly covered ourselves in glory on that one."

This isn't productive avenue of discussion, as Aqualad would say.

"Look, I'm pretty sure we're going to be doing actual teamwork practise from now on. And that orange armour construct I gave you? I can do that in every fight. You want to be stronger, tougher? I can do that."

"Can you make me fully Kryptonian?"

Can I? Should I? Itmightbe possible, but I'm not happy with the idea of reconfiguring his brain like that.

"I don't… I don'tthinkso."

"Then don't bother."

He swings his legs over the edge of the bed, steps on the floor and walks to the exit. When he reaches it, he pauses.

"Thanks for… fixing my ears."

"No problem."

He nods, and leaves the room.


	32. 38

18th July

13:01 GMT-4

I've taken to eating lunch on top of the mountain. With my environmental shield active the wind doesn't bother me or my food, and the view is really quite splendid. Superboy could probably do with some time away from me and with the others. And I need to do some thinking about how this is all going to work.

Once he got his head in the game, Aqualad was quite effective at organising the rest of us. I guess that means he'll probably end up in charge of our little coterie. I'll have to talk to him about team practise. I remember the obstacle course which the Teen Titans put Terra through in the cartoon. Don't think that anything like that actually exists here, and we wouldn't be ready for it even if it did. My current assessment would be that our effectiveness as a group is probably lower than our effectiveness as individuals, simply because we aren't used to the way each other performs under pressure. Maybe tactics training sessions? Or maybe just proper demonstrations of our abilities; I know I haven't shown all of the constructs I can create to anyone here. Likewise, I have no idea what Robin routinely keeps in his utility belt, or the range of Aqualad's Water-Bearers. I didn't even know that Wallacecouldcreate miniature tornados before today.

I need to get some notebooks. I'm getting used to using the ring for just about everything, but I find the act of writing things down helpful to my though processes. I need to make time to check how much of my knowledge of Detective Comics applies here. The obvious low risk high reward choice would be trying to make contact with either Alec Holland or Swamp Thing, whichever version we'd be dealing with. We could fly down to Louisiana tomorrow, and narrow down the search by scanning for non-native plant life from the air. If he isn't there or -more likely- if he doesn't want to speak to us then there should still be evidence of his presence. Better yet, he might be alright about talking to us, if he actually exists here. One of my all time favourite comic book stories is of his attack on Gotham City after Abby gets arrested. The shear raw power he can bring to bear if something antagonises him sufficiently is truly awesome.

Suppose it's worth checking if I can skip all that work, though. I lean over to a nearby tree and knock on the trunk.

"Doctor Holland, might I have a word?"

No response. I take a bite out of mybaguette. Baked it myself yesterday, and added a cucumber filling. Back home I used a bread machine but was never quite able to get them right. Here, I have both the time to spend and the ring to do the boring bits. Leaving bread to rise for an hour, kneed it a bit and then leave it for an hour again? Sure, why not, it breaks up the supervillain profile reading.

Happy Harbour doesn't exactly have chain stores. They're either genuinely local or franchisees instead. I've followed through on my idea of setting up a prepaid account at each one I use. Initially the owners found the whole thing quite confusing but now I think they just find me an amusing oddity. I usually drop round when I know the owner will be there but there won't be many other customers, either first thing in the morning or last thing at night.

So far as I can tell there hasn't been a noticeable decrease in the price of either gold or platinum as a result of my actions.

Alan has invited both myself and Diana for dinner next weekend. He'll probably want to hear about my first fight with a supervillain. Before getting cross examined I should really work what else besides the obvious I should have done differently.

To start with, I should have begun by scanning Mister Twister. Not just a sweep with OrangeVision, but a full physical scan. That would have shown me his vulnerable points, as well as telling me that there wasn't anyone organic inside the armour. Complex AIs are people, but they can generally take having limbs ripped off better than organics can. Attacking his cables was also something I should have done. They were clearly vulnerable points; they were even a different colour from the rest of him to make it more obvious! I might have been able to do something to redirect his lightning bolts or disrupt his generating capacity, but that is probably a bit above my complexity level at present. I should also have dodged more. Stopping completely still during a fight was a bad idea, and I'm pretty sure I can get the ring to automate the process.

What did I do right? Hmm. I wasmostlyable to stop my team mates from being hurt. I didn't get myself hurt. I made the property damage Twister inflicted a little bit less. I managed to acquire enemy technical data which I've passed on to the League. I suggested to Red Tornado that he might like to use it to update his systems, but he didn't seem enthusiastic. Maybe there is a difference between an AI with a robotic avatar and an android, and he's more attached to his body? The armour I created around Superboy looked pretty sturdy. If it actually was as tough as mine then he might have briefly beentougherthan his father. He didn't seem keen on the idea of me helping in that way. Hating needing someone else's help to get to where you think you should be anyway, I can relate to that.

I wonder if I can create similar armour constructs for the others as well? In theory it should be possible, and since the armour is basically weightless it shouldn't interfere with their combat abilities. I didn't specifically think 'armour' when Superboy was being threatened, the ring just acted when my desire to protect him reached a particular strength.

I wonder if the data could be used to create a weather control network, or at least some way to artificially break up major storms and natural tornados? I'll write something up and submit it to Batman. Does he ever monetise recovered supervillain gear? Can that be made to work, legally? Because if it can then the League might well be able to become self funding. Heck, FTL comms to Mars alone…

I've certainly learned that the theory and practise of this sort of combat are two radically different things, and that fighting a brawler like Diana in an open area is very different to fighting another ranged fighter somewhere where I'm supposed to be preventing collateral damage. Unless there is a natural hurricane or something collateral damage prevention isn't really something Icanpractise. I've learned that we need practise co-ordinating as a group, or to be assigned tasks that don't overlap so that we don't get in each others way. If I'd confronted Mister Twister on my own I'd have been more aggressive, once I got it through my head that yes, this is a fight and I amsupposedto hit the other guy. He wasn't a good match up for our brawler heavy line up. Perhaps I should ask M'gann about the extent of her telekinesis?

Another mouthful of baguette. The Pacific can wait, but I do need to finish my meditation. Where was I? No, no, after an event like that I should start from the beginning.

Physiological? No change. It took a while, but I've managed to mostly adapt to local time, and usually sleep better than I was. Had to replace my mattress with a harder one to match what I am used to.

Safety. Not sure how I feel about this now. I was able to prevent Mister Twister's attacks harming me, and if it happened again I could probably prevent myself throwing up by simply telling the ring to lock my inner ear. Now that I've had a chance to calm down, it's obvious that I am muchmoresecure since coming here, even with the increased threat level. The fact that I can keep myself safe through my own power is particularly gratifying.

Belonging. Our first fight forced us to work together as an actual unit. I certainly feel more a part of the group than I did, and I think that Wallace at least is opening up to me a little. Maybe coming out here was the wrong thing to do? I thought it might be good for Superboy, but he usually just stomps off on his own when something annoys him. Communal eating is a big deal and I'm probably missing it. Alright, change that behaviour. I'll head down once I've finished this.

Superboy. Thinking about him being miserable makes me feel the same way it did when I inadvertently offended M'gann earlier.His wellbeing is more important to me nowthan it was this morning. Is that because I consider myself responsible for it in a broader sense than just undoing the harm I inflicted? He was pretty miserable, but he doesn't have M'gann's usual upbeat attitude. I don't really know what sort of thingsmakehim happy. I should try and find out, or at least come up with a novel activity which he can participate in. Maybe he'd feel better if he felt he was doing something useful?

Alright, bite the bullet. I feel closer to Superboy. Could I see myself being sexually intimate with him? Hmm. He's not unattractive, certainly. He definitely needs support, andI do like being needed. Cons, the age and experience difference is vast. Even greater than it would be if he was his actual physical age. With M'gann, if it came to it, as the younger party I feel I could say that I didn't care about the nineteen year gap. With Superboy, no, that would be wrong. He doesn't just need support while going through a rough patch, he needs serious help integrating the stuff that Cadmus stuck in his head, and learning how to function in society. Maybe… that's something M'gann could help with? Can shetelepathically build links between knowledge and information? Would he let her? Getting off the point. Bottom line, while I don't rule anything out completely, I generally prefer women. Superboy just isn't appealing enough a prospect to break my habits.

It's amazing how heteronormativity gets to you. I found even thinking about that rationally a little uncomfortable.

Esteem. Actually being able to fight is… new.I can ensure my own safety. Most people, even those in my home parallel, can't honestly say that. Some of the things I've seen power rings do in the comics suggests that I should be able to tank pretty much anything: nuclear strikes, eldritch weapons, medium sized gods… I had assumed that Diana just hadn't been giving it her all when she punched me during practise, but maybe I misunderstood. All told, having fixed Superboy's injury and acknowledging our obvious faults, I felt pretty good about our first supervillain fight. And about my role in it. I had been concerned that I lacked the necessary aggression to function in such a situation, but instead it seems that I have just about enough to fight without getting carried away. I think that the team's veteran members have more respect for me as well. Robin seemed rather impressed with my scan of Mister Twister's systems, though more in a 'that's cool' way than a 'let's revolutionise weather control' way. They seemed to regard deafening Superboy as unfortunate but notthatstupid. I don't know what they think about him being up and about again.

Thinking about it, the Justice League don't have a medical professional amongst their ranks. Or on staff, since they don't have a staff. Does Mister Zatara use healing magic? I don't really remember much about his comic book alter ego, other than how he died. Zatanna exists here. Hm, wonder if she'll be joining us?

Self-actualisation. Even though it blew itself up I still think shielding the potentially self-aware robot from M'gann was the correct choice. I think what I said about telepathy not being a guide to personhood got through. I do need to start work on my big project, brainstorm who should exist here who might be able to handle an orange ring. Heck, we'll be a Lantern Corps. I can pick from anywhere in the galaxy.

Who can I remember that can channel their desires productively without being overwhelmed?


	33. 39

18th July

13:17 GMT-4

I hear a dull thump as something imbeds in a tree nearby. I look around and see Robin's grapple. Yeah, I guess this place is a bit hard to get to if you can't fly. I wonder what he wants. We haven't really spoken much since the team came together. Aside from both being trainee superheroes we don't really have anything in common, and then there's the age difference. I wonder if I should tell him I know who he is, and if so, should I say that I used the ring or suggest that I playedGuess Whowith Gotham notables until I came to an answer. I did that, just for fun, and you can pretty much work out who Batman is if you know what you're doing. The ring made getting the information necessary to make the eliminations easier, of course.

I hear a grunt as he pulls himself over the edge.

"Need a hand?"

"Nah, I'm fine."

He's upright, and pulls his grapple out of the wood.

"Did you come up for the view?"

I take another bite of baguette. I think I left the yeast for just long enough this time.

And then he's kneeling besides me, one arm around my shoulder and the other in front of my face. His holographic computer is active, and a single name is showing. Aaron. I blink, trying to work out what is going on.

"Can I surmise that your intent is to scroll through names until I react?"

"You said you didn't mind us knowing."

"Quite the contrary; I'd like to have people call me by my name. But do you have them arranged alphabetically, or in order of popularity? I ask because while I believe my name is reasonably popular itisn'tnear the beginning of the alphabet."

"Oh. Huh."

The arm around my shoulder is retracted for a moment as he rearranges the list.

"Thinking about it, it probably makes sense to try and get the first letter before going after the rest of the name."

I still myself. Don't think the name, think the letter. Think about it in some other context.

"P."

"That should make it easier."

The arm and the screen return, and my name is showing. I can look at it, as long as I don't concentrate on it. But Robin's friendly arm can feel my reaction.

"So it's 'Paul', then?"

"Yes."

"Huh."

He stands up and walks forward to look at the view.

"What were you expecting?"

His face creases.

"I don't know."

"Feel free to tell the others."

"You really can't say it?"

I suppose I might be able to say it now that someone knows.

"Hello, I'm Orange Lantern two eight one four, but you can call me ugr ugh-."

Looks like I can't. Robin turns back to me as I try to relax my throat. He's grinning.

"Okay. 'Ugr Ugh' it is."

I stare at him for a moment. Yep, that's annoying.

"Y'know, when you said that happened, kinda thought you were joking."

"'Fraid… Ah, I'm afraid not."

"Does that hurt?"

"It feels like a small blockage in my windpipe. Nothing major."

He's wearing sunglasses. Now that I think about it I don't think I've seen him without them. It isfairlybright today, but I'm not sure why he had them on inside. Iknowthat his eyes are in perfect condition. I wave my right hand and an orange lounger forms.

"Take a seat."

He walks alongside it and studies it for a moment, before flopping down on to the cushion, hands behind his head.

"You planning on spending the day up here?"

"I didn't finish meditating earlier, so I needed to do that. I had been planning to spend most of the day over the Pacific. Now, I'm kind of off schedule. You have any plans?"

"Ugh, probably spend it filling in a report on the fight with Mister Twister."

"Mine took two minutes."

"Two minutes?!"

"I have a power ring. Power rings are awesome."

"Yeah, but, paperwork?"

"It's just an information transfer. Plus, the ring records pretty much everything that happens around me. Made the timeline easy."

"Huh."

He leans back again, then his expression brightens.

"I know. Why don't I just copy yours?"

"No."

"Comeon. It was the same fight."

"Quite aside from the fact that there were bits you saw that I didn't, report writing is a valuable skill to learn."

"Phss. Oh, hey, I saw that Superboy's up and about."

"That wasn't as complicated as I though it might be."

"You rebuilt his whole auditory canal."

"The ring handled the fiddly bits."

"Even so…"

"Wasn't like I was designing the thing from scratch."

"Sure, you were repairing him, but it's still-"

"No, I didn't know what his original looked like. I ended up copying and pasting Superman's."

"When'd you scan his?"

"About half an hour ago. I don't have to be close to do it if I want it enough."

He frowns.

"Wait. Do you mean that his ears weren't the same as Superman's?"

Whoops.

"I realise that I'm not a medical doctor, but I don't think I should talk about that without his permission."

"Ah, fine."

"What are the rest of you doing for lunch?"

"Kid Flash ordered pizza. I was going to ask what you wanted, but…"

He gestures to the remains of my baguette. Mistake on my part.

"He's not getting them delivered here, is he?"

"No, he's picking up."

"Can he carry that many pizza boxes?"

"He's had lots'a practice."

I can believe it. I get up.

"I should probably head back down. Any plans once the report writing is finished?"

He gets off the lounger as I create a platform to float us down. He walks on board.

"M'gann said something about Acapulco?"


	34. 40

Prod Zone

19th July

12:49 GMT-4

I peer into the desiccated face of what was once our target.

"Ye-ap. This one's not alive either."

After yesterday I thought it might be good for M'gann and Superboy to get out of the base on something that looked kind of like a mission. Which is why we're walking through the swamps of Louisiana in an attempt to track down either Doctor Alec Holland or, as I hope, Swamp Thing. Finding theweird mutant planthe nominally lives in was quite simple for the ring. Finding the Elemental himself is presently defeating us. This is the seventh abandoned Swamp Thing body we've come across.

Robin is helping Red Tornado investigate Mister Twister's remains. American summer holidays are really long, apparently. He wanted to come until I said that it was unlikely anything interesting was going to happen and Red Tornado made it clear that we were obliged to retreat in the event of a hostile reception. His orders may not be binding like Batman's or Diana's but I don't want to irritate him all the same.

Wallace is back in Central City doing… something. Since Robin let everyone know my name he decided it would be fair to share his. Apparently, not even his mother calls him Wallace and I'm on a list with his grandmother and his geography teacher.

Kaldur wanted to plan out team training activities. I also asked him about getting the base warded against arcane attack. He said that it was a bit beyond his abilities. Mentioned some Atlantian friends of his who might have been up to it. Someone named Tula -whose name sounded vaguely familiar from the comics- and Garth. Kaldur became Aquaman's aide after he and Garth aided him in combat against Ocean Master. Both were offered the position, but Garth chose to remain at Conservatory of Sorcery instead in this timeline. Would he have chosen differently if Kaldur wasn't there? I don't remember his comic background well enough to know if that's how it happened there. Kaldur also said that my referring to him as Royal Champion was a bit premature. He doesn't actually have a formal court title as yet.

Superboy appears to be adjusting well to his new and improved ears. He's currently photographing and taking samples from different parts of the Swamp Thing modified plants that we've found so far. M'gann and I are doing a bit of exploring. Since none of us know which bits are safe to step on floating over the ground is really the best way to do it. Superboy looked a bit down at the whole 'can't join in because you can't fly' aspect of the thing but as I told him, we need information. He perked up a little once M'gann offered to teach him to fly the bioship.

*Orange Lantern to Miss Martian.*

*It sounds weird when you think it.*

*I'm still not sold on the whole 'secret identity' thing. Makes even less sense for you.*

*My Earth name is similar to my Martian name.*

*Actual name.*

*Right. And my face is the same, just a different color. People might make the connection if they heard it.*

*Anyone on Earth capable of telepathic eavesdropping could already get your secret identity. I don't suppose you've heard anything from our target?*

*I don't know what a Plant Elemental's mind would sound like, but so far it's just swamp creatures.*

*Right. He's either not here or he's avoiding us. I'll do a ring scan and then I think we should break for lunch. Try a different approach in the afternoon. Superboy, you about done on your end?*

*Yeah.*

*Red Tornado say anything about the pictures?*

*He said he'd get someone to look at it.*

*Anyone know a super powered botanist other than Pamela Isley?*

*Who?*

Neither of them have heard of her?

*Poison Ivy? Crazy Gotham plant woman? Feeds people to giant pitcher plants?*

Silence from Superboy.

*I… think I remember Robin mentioning her.*

*Right, when we get back I'm sticking both of you in front of some case files. Youneedtoknowthis stuff.*

I get a sense of disgruntlement from Superboy. I'll snap him out of that.

*You think Superman doesn't read up on potential threats? You think he hasn't invested a great deal of effort in finding out exactly how hard he has to hit someone to put them down quicklywithoutcausing permanent damage? Being strong isn't enough, you have to know how to use it.*

*Fine.*

Done it again.

*Look, I was thinking about asking Diana to give you some hand to hand combat tuition. I'm not convinced that Black Canary's martial arts are going to be of much use to someone as strong as you. Is that something you'd be interested in?*

There's a brief pause.

*I should be getting taught by Superman.*

Haven't seen him around, actually.

*How are things between you and him anyway?*

There's a flash of something from M'gann. Feels like… panic?

*What?*

*They're fine!*

*Okay, well, let me know if you're interested. I'll see you both back at the ship.*

If the swamp were a bit dryer, I might find it pretty. As it is the mud and mosquitoes put me right off.

"Ring, scan for any more piles of vines that used to be Swamp Thing."

Immediately I can feel their locations. Wanting something more precise I create a map construct with their locations. There's about forty, plus or minus seven for degrees of decay. No real pattern, other than there seem to be more around his home, and none of them are moving. Makes sense. I save the map and fly back towards the ship.

There's a shallow pool to one side of the… tree..? Vine mound? I have no idea what to call the thing Swamp Thing lives in. Beautiful and quite alien. I doubt it would survive without his attention and upkeep. The bioship is hovering over the more solid ground on the other side, stealth disengaged. Superboy left a letter from us addressed to the owner, asking him to get in contact. I somehow doubt that he will.

I fly around to the rear entrance and enter the ship. Superboy's in the pilot's seat with M'gann standing over him, pointing out the basic controls. Superboy hunches slightly as I land. M'gann turns around and smiles nervously at me.

*This is just coming to you. Superman and Superboy… well… Superman didn't take finding out that someone cloned him particularly well. I don't think they've spoken since the others got him out of Cadmus.*

*Fiddlesticks.*

She frowns slightly.

*Dah, okay, sorry. I'll try and fix it.*

She nods, and turns back to Superboy.

"Okay Superboy, take us up."

His hands move over the controls and the ship rises above the canopy. I'm not worried about being seen. If the comics are anything to go by this whole area is inhabited only by crazy people who see far weirder stuff on a daily basis. If the comics aren't anything to go by then there's still nothing anywhere near here. I walk over to sit at the right forward seat. I know we brought packed lunches, but…

Idea!

I swivel the chair around to face them.

"How about we go and find a restaurant? There's got to be somewhere that does good food around here. My treat, if we can find somewhere that will take gold as payment."


	35. 41

19th July

13:04 GMT-4

It took M'gann a while to convince me that American roadside food can actually be quite good. That is very muchnotthe case in England. It took me a while to convince her that going outside the ship with green skin would be perfectly fine. I certainly wasn't planning to drop my shield in a state full of gun owners, and hanging around with someone who glows orange while in her civies would do more to give the game away than going in Martian. Superboy didn't much care either way.

That was why on Monday the nineteenth of July in the year of our lord two thousand ten a Martian bioship dropped camouflage over Grammy Smith's Roadside Kitchen, between Houma and Morgan City, just off Highway 90.

"Ring, prevent mobile phone calls."

An extremely nervous looking M'gann levitates herself down to the ground from the back hatch. I turn to Superboy.

"D'you want me to-"

He jumps down the seven or so meters to the ground, landing in a crouch. I float down after him to where M'gann is waving hesitantly at the few diners already present.

"Er… Hi?"

They are too busy gawping to return her greeting. Superboy scans the area once, then snorts. Ah! The counter. I stride towards it.

"Come on, this way. Either of you actually know anything about Louisianan food?"

Turns out? Superboy does. At least, to the extent of knowing what was in things. Better still, he didn't zombify much when he explained it to us. Maybe simple information integrates faster? Perhaps that means he'll get all of the rest without telepathic help. I order what I think is some sort ofseafood stew with riceand Superboy and M'gann order aRisotto. Both food types are kept ready to serve behind the counter, but I can see the next batch being cooked so it's probably pretty fresh. They also order Coke, and I think about asking for a large glass of milk before I realise that they probably don't have enough and order orange juice instead. The cook seems to find our presence amusing, and laughs out loud when I hand him three gold coins to pay for it.

"No way, man! No wayanyoneis gunna believe this happened! These coins? These're gunna get me arrested!"

We take our food and walk to the most isolated free picnic table. It isn't a large area, so we aren't even out of earshot of the people who are just emerging from their stupor. I briefly consider sticking a shield up… but that would be rude.

Ring, one way sound baffle.

There's a brief orange surge, and a sound likecollecting a water shield in Sonic 3. M'gann looks at me inquisitorially.

"Sound baffle. Makes it harder for people to hear what we're saying."

"Oh. Okay…"

She looks nervously at the other diners, some of whom are taking pictures of us and the ship. A group of children are either trying to jump up to the back hatch of the bioship or are reenacting Superboy's jump down. Superboy's already started eating. Conversation has never been a great skill of mine, but if I can start with anything…

"You said that you were planning to attend high school. What year are you planning to start in?"

"Oh, I'm, ah, I'm starting as a sophomore."

I load my fork with what I think might be oyster. I wanted to leave my food comfort zone and -hooray!- I have. Well and bloody truly.

"M'gann, I'm English. Our education system is structured differently. What does that mean in terms of how old your classmates are going to be?"

She's trying to split her attention between me, her food and the other diners.

"They'll be sixteen. Mostly, anyway. How does it work in England?"

"At sixteen you're in the last year of secondary school. At the end of the year you take your GCSE exams, and then you're done with compulsory education."

"Really? That early?"

"I've never thought of it as early. A lot of people do go on to college for the next two years, or do a vocational qualification, but, yeah."

"That does seem a bit young."

"According to his personnel file, Kaldur started national service when he was twelve. Not sure howthatworks."

"Maybe it was a military school?"

"Maybe. Any thoughts on what you want to do after you finish school?"

That question warrants a hurried mouthful. Yeah, knowthatfeeling. She shakes her head.

"Its not an immediate concern, but you should probably start thinking about it if you intend to move to Earth on a permanent basis. I got the impression that youwereplanning on living here?"

"I'd like to."

"Thing about being a superhero? You usually don't get paid to do it."

"Usually?"

"Green Lanterns get paid by the Guardians. It's notgreatmoney, but you can live off it. Particularly when bounty payments are taken into account."

"They get paid bounties? That doesn't sound… very…"

I wave a hand to stop her.

"Not by the Corps, but a lot of the people they end up going after have bounties on them from other places."

"Do you get paid by your Corps?"

"Orange Lanterns assume that if you can't work out how to make money with a power ring then you're probably too stupid to be given one. Green Lanterns need to get paid because the Guardians haveverystrict rules against Lanterns using power rings for their own ends."

"And you can use your ring for whatever you want?"

"TheCorpsdoesn't place restrictions. There's thingsIwon't do with it. I mean, Sinestro got booted out of the Green Corps for using his ring to take over his homeworld. I wouldn'twantto do that."

"So you used your ring to get gold?"

"And platinum. Asteroid mining. Most of the Mars - Jupiter asteroid belt was untouched, so I used the ring to smelt some metal. Maybe an half an hour's work for what I've spent in this parallel so far, and I've been overpaying. Actually, that surprised me a bit: how come Martians haven't got involved in asteroid mining?"

"We've never reallyneededto. And, well, most Martians aren't very interested in leaving the caves."

"Ooh, maybe we need to introduce the rest of Martian society to the joys of Earth television?"

She smiles.

"That might just turn them all into couch potatoes."

I'm finding thetexturesodd, but the food actually tastes quite good. It pretty much falls into my preferred gap in between 'we-call-it-a-kitchen-but-basically-we-just-microwave-stuff' and 'what-do-you-mean-you-don't-like-cheese-and-tomato-ice-cream'. Stuff that you actually enjoy eating.

Now for the tricky bit.

"Superboy, how about you?"

He stops eating and looks at me, as if he's surprised that I'm there.

"What about me?"

"School. Education. Do you have any plans, or has anyone talked to you about it?"

"No."

"Do you think it might be good to look into?"

"No."

I give him what I hope is an encouraging smile. Please say something else..?

"I'm a weapon. I know how to hit things. I don'tneedto learn anything else."

He goes back to eating.

Ooooo keeeey….

"But there's so many other things you could learn to do as well!"

Think you're on to a loser there, M'gann.

"I don't-"

He swallows.

"-need anything else. I don'twantanything else."

Well, that's… yeah. Okay. M'gann and I share a look. New topic. Erm…


	36. 42

19th July

13:12 GMT-4

I should probably eat this before it gets cold. M'gann and I both focus on eating. Superboy's finished, and is glaring moodily at some of the other diners. Or maybe it's a Jason Bourne thing and he's working out potential attack vectors and escape routes?

There is one thing I've been thinking about.

"I must admit, I was surprised that Mr J'onzz was prepared to take you in. I didn't think that him and his brother got on."

She looks at me in surprise.

"You know uncle Ma'al?"

"By reputation only."

"No, they… wow, theyreallydon't get on. My mom is their sister."

"That makes more sense. Any other family?"

"There's my mom and my dad, my brothers and sisters."

"Brothersandsisters? You come from a large family?"

"Not really. Only seventeen boys and thirteen girls. I mean, I've got about three hundred cousins, but it's not really… What?"

I'm gaping.

"How many!"

"Why is… oh! I suppose by Human standards that is quite big."

"Just a bit, yes."

"What about you? Um, if you don't mind?"

"Both parents still with us, and one sister.Fourcousins, if you're wondering."

"I suppose that could be nice. You must be able to remember all their names and birthdays."

One out of two isn't bad.

"About the after school thing. Unless you want a normal job for the sake of it, you'd probably be better off finding a unique service you can offer, and charging people for it."

She chews for a moment.

"I know there aren't many Human telepaths or shape shifters."

"There you go. Now, what can you do with those things that people will pay you for?"

"Most Humans I've met haven't been very keen on mind reading."

"I used to watch a television series where telepaths were routinely used in business negotiations to ensure that neither party was trying to deceive the other. There isn't a market now, but it's worth thinking about."

"What series was that?"

"Babylon 5. Don't bother looking it up, it doesn't exist here."

She thinks for a moment.

"I suppose… counselling services? I'm not sure I like the idea of going inside damaged minds."

"Not much money in it anyway. But if you can create telepathic suggestions you could offer your services to people trying to stop smoking. Or to stop using harder drugs."

"Mind control?"

"Very limited mind control that they ask for and pay you to perform, and that you can undo whenever they ask."

"I suppose… I don't think I like the idea of doing that sort of thing."

I shrug.

"No problem. Just an idea. How about telepathic illusions?"

"I've been practising, but I'm not that good yet. How about shape shifting instead?"

"There's modelling. Don't really have any suggestions about that. Acting, but that will require a lot of time. Could work. I think Animal Man works as a stunt double. Money won't be all that great for a while if you're just looking for something to fund your superheroing."

"Well, it isn't as if I have to decide right now."

"True."

New topic time.

"Why is it that you're choosing to live in the mountain rather than with your uncle?"

"Uncle J'onn isn't around all that much. It was kinda lonely. Plus, I think he prefers being on his own."

"You think us living in a known superhero base is a good idea?"

M'gann looks at Superboy, intentionally giving him a chance to respond, before giving up with a small sigh.

"Kid Flash said that we're hiding in plain sight."

"How so?"

"Because… the bad guys know it's a secret superhero base, so they won't look for us there?"

Eh?

"That… thatreallyisn't howhiding in plain sightworks. A disused base suddenly showing activity draws attention. It would only be hiding in plain sight if there was some other more obvious explanation for it going live again that meant they ignored us."

She smiles.

"You think you'll be attacked in your sleep?"

"I'm not worried about that; I sleep wearing a personal forcefield generator. I'm more worried about what happens if the mountain becoming a tourist attraction, like the Hall of Justice. Even if we can cope with an aggressor, random holiday makers would just be hostage fodder."

"Our missions aren't usually going to happennearthe mountain. And the Hall of Justice is hardly ever attacked."

"Umm, suppose. Oh, know what I've noticed?"

"What?"

"There's three people here but only two of them are talking. So! Superboy. Had any thoughts on a first name yet?"

He actually seems to think about that one.

"No."

But the result is the same. M'gann looks concerned.

"You do want one, right?"

He fidgets a little.

"Well… yeah…"

"Given any thought to the sort of name you want? Something Human, something Kryptonian, something that works in both?"

He think about it for a moment.

"What… Kryptonian names do you know?"

"Sorry, not many. The male Kryptonian names I remember were all short. Kal, Jor, Dru. I can't even remember what Jor-El's brother was called. I suppose… er… one of the Greenies might have better records."

Notsuggesting he ask Superman. Now, do I try to convince him to go for Kon-El/Conner Kent, or just let him do his own thing? Could be awkward if I forget his choice.

"How about Conner?"

And M'gann out of absolutely nowhere. She seems strangely enthusiastic. Superboy looks at me. Why? Oh. Kryptonian authenticity checking.

"It works for a Human name, but it's a bit long for Krypton. Maybe if you just used the first syllable?"

Might as well…

"Maybe if you spelt the Kryptonian version with a kay rather than a cee?"

He avoids eye contact as he thinks about it.

"Kon. El."

I'm not sure that helikesit, but he doesn't seem able to come up with a reason to dislike it. And it sounds a bit like Superman's name.

"Kon-El. Okay."

He actually sounded calm when he said that, without his usual angry or confused tinge.It sounds better. Looks like M'gann's still in to bat for 'Conner'.

"Maybe Conner could be your Earth name. Like I'm using Megan Morse."

"I don't need one."

He'd probably take one if I demonstrated that Superman had a secret identity, but I think that would be tipping my hand a bit much. Another reason, then.

"You might want to pretend to be Human at some point. For a reconnaissance mission, or something. It would probably work better if you were used to responding to a Human style name."

He thinks about it, then shrugs.

"I suppose."

Continuity preserved, or something like it. Time to get back to work.

Ring, display list of names.

There are no Abigail Arcanes, but there are seven Abigail Cables and two Abigail Hollands. The ring creates a hologram-like screen for M'gann and Superb-. Kon-El. Time to relearn what I already know. The display also has their addresses.

"We'll check out the list, then head home. Remember, mid twenties to mid thirties, and she should have white hair with a black streak. If we see her and she starts freaking out, just back away and record the address."

I smile.

"Kon-El, anything to add?"

He looks blank for a moment, then…did he just nearly smile?

"Maybe… maybe we shouldn't crowd her. It'll be less intimidating if only one of us speaks to her at a time."

"Good point. And well volunteered."

"What?"

"Abigail Jane Cable is closest."

I stand up and turn to the bioship. The crowd looks bigger than when we arrived, but fortunately they leave a clear space around us. I wave my right hand and an orange staircase appears from the ground to the bioship's rear hatch. M'gann and Kon follow me up.


	37. 43

22nd July

15:02 GMT -4

"I know you can lift more, but that isn't the aim here. You're supposed to lift a smaller weight repeatedly. Building strength rather than showing off what you already have."

It's a mark of how much our relationship has improved this week that Kon actually appears to listen to what I say, rather then snapping at me or storming off. He's lying on a bench press bench I fabricated after the normal steel one we tried this with collapsed under the weight. Near his head is an orange construct weight rest with a construct set of barbells. The barbells show fifty tonnes. It won't actually weight anything until he picks it up, and it will stop weighing anything if he gets into difficulty. Not too many people around who can spot for a Kryptonian.

This morning wasn't the first time that he mentioned his dissatisfaction with his sub-Superman abilities. Rather than let him either mope or try to persuade me to take a chance on modifying his body I suggested improving his strength in the traditional way. I doubt that any improvement will be significant. Really, I just want something to focus his attention on, but he seems to be pretty into it. We started on regular weights, but even loading the bar up to it's maximum it still didn't strain him. So I had the ring exert thirty tonnes and the bench broke.

He reaches under the rest and puts his hands on to the bar, pushing up slightly. The ringcreates the downwards forceand he begins pushing. Up down up down up down up no no no.

"Kon, it's about power under control. Slower. Here."

Icreate a metronome construct with a three second swing.

"One swing up, one swing down. It's harder to hold the bar with your arms bent than it is to hold it fully up."

He nods, then resumes. It's weird, really. He can lift fifty tonnes like it's no big deal, but is still perfectly capable of fine object manipulation without risking breaking whatever he's holding. No idea how it works. Maybe the level of strength he employs is somehow controlled by his intent? Wasn't he a touch telekinetic in the comics to begin with?

Watching his muscles move is impressive. My ring modified body probably has a little more definition -definitely not earned, I haven't spent any time in the gym for my own exercise- but even ignoring his super strength his muscles are clearly the larger. I haven't watched someone like him lift weights before and it's strangely enthralling. Kon changed into a vest for this and I can watch his muscles move as the tension shifts to different muscle groups.

There's a blast of displaced air and then Wallace-

"Guys! We're getting a mission!"

Kon holds the bar with his elbows bent at ninety degrees. Maybe I am setting the weight a bit low?

"Finally."

He moves it to the rest, and sits up as I delete the constructs. Should I be nervous? I'm not sure. I'm now fairly confident in my ability to protect both myself and my team mates. Shielding others was the main thing our recent team practises have allowed me to get good at. I can armour up Kon and M'gann in a second or so, and create versions of my environmental shielding for the others. Robin said that he preferred if I didn't use it on him as the orange glow draws the eye when he'd rather use evasion and misdirection. Kon, on the other hand, has been using it to the maximum. Barrier type construct shields are even easier, and I can use simple constructs on separate tasks without really concentrating.

"Do you have any other information for us?"

And the wind leaves his sails.

"No. But Batman's coming down later to give the briefing."

Kon's a bit more interested.

"When?"

"Batman's getting here about five."

If Wallace knows, then:

"Can I assume you heard about this from Robin?"

"Yeah."

"He didn't tell youanythingelse?"

He gives me an irritated look.

"Y'know, you could be more excited about this."

I lean back and cross my arms across my chest.

"I don't have anything to be excited about yet."

It's a little frustrating. If we're doing this mission today I'd like a chance to do some preparatory reading. Maybe practise construct types appropriate to the local threats. And if Batman is coming here, he must already know more or less what we'll be going in to. No reason he couldn't send an information packet over.

Wow, listen to me. Actually sound like I know what I'm doing.

Kon doesn't understand my lack of interest.

"This finally shows that they're taking us seriously."

"Kon, have you any idea how much it cost them to rebuild this place? This was always going to happen."

Timing's a bit awkward. If we're being deployed this evening then we're going to have to move dinner. Maybe we can rush the mission and find somewhere decent to eat out? Wallace doesn't get to pick this time. Not after the Mexican gut horror.

I couldreallyuse more information.

"I suppose using the ring to spy on Batman to find out more would be impolite."

They both look at me, shocked. Wallace speaks first.

"You can do that?"

"I'm not going to."

"But you could?"

"Sure. Simply do a long range scan for Batman's DNA and then set the ring to report whatever he says."

Kon thinks about it.

"Like you did when you scanned Superman?"

"Exactly. Far easier to get the sound around a person than to perform a high grade medical scan."

"Dude. Seriously?"

"A power ring's scanning capacity is a function of the emotional power of the user and it's energy reserves. I'd like more information, Batman's almost certainly in North America and I'm fully charged."

"The Bat Cave's got loads of anti surveillance tech."

"Most of which is early twenty first century Human technology. I doubt any of it could stop a power ring."

"How...long... have you been able to do this?"

"From the moment I got the ring. Any Lantern could. AnycompetentLantern. Really, the League's fortunate that Sinestro doesn't understand Human society at all, because he could pretty much wreck-"

Wallace's face is a picture of astonished surprise.

"Are you seriously saying you think the other Lanterns are incompetent?"

"My mentor was hamstrung by his ring's lack of AI support, and by the fact he couldn't get training. I haven't seen any footage of Lantern Gardner. But the other two? From what I've seen in recordings, I haven't been impressed. They seem to have trained exclusively for power with no appreciation for the more subtle uses of the ring. Which is a shame, because I'm sure their teachers -Lanterns Sinestro and Tui- would have at leasttriedto expand their range a little."

"They're Justice League members! The League's first Green Lantern saved hundreds of people when Star Sapphire attacked the Las Vegas airshow! He beat the Golden Condor by freezing an entire waterfall solid!"

"Brute. Force. Star Sapphire was after him anyway, and the Golden Condor's transmutation ability only works on physical contact. Why was it even able to touch him?"

Kon frowns.

"You really don't admire any other Lanterns?"

"There are four Green Lanterns whom I admire.Lantern Medphyl, for his comportment. If there was any justice he'd be running the Greenies training program rather than that muscle brain Kilowog.Lantern Jack Chance, for his initiative. He actually carries back up weapons in case something goes wrong with his ring. Most Lanterns don't even wear actual armour, and I'm happy to learn from their mistake.Lantern Rot Lop Fan, for his adaptability. His species doesn't even have a concept of light, so he, hah, thinks that he's a member of something called the F-Sharp Bell Corps, and uses sonic constructs. And Lantern Kreon, for being the most highly skilled construct user in existence. A construct only needs to exist for a second to do it's work but most Lanterns -myself included- can't quite get their heads around the idea. Most manage better thatboxing gloves, though."

Kon bases his whole heroic identity on Superman. It's clear that he can't really relate to my position.

"And no Orange Lanterns?"

Pff.

"I surpass Larfleeze by leaving my bedroom each morning. There's nothing admirable there."

"And the others?"

How to put this?

"The reason why I meditate each day is to prevent myself from turning out like the others; slaves to their base drives. I feel nothing for them but contempt."


	38. 44

22nd July

20:06 GMT -4

Reconnaissance on a Santa Priscan drug factory? Sounds straight forward enough. I should be able to get most of the information we need via ring scan. Unfortunately, I can't get my head around the idea of the combat drug Venom being a major problem in a world with guns, not sufficiently well to do so long distance anyway. I also don't understand why the US government hasn't done something about Santa Prisca before now. From what Batman was saying it's leading exports appear to be drugs, guns and mercenaries. It has basically no friends internationally. Baffling. Batman said that the Justice League would intervene if necessary, so, here's hoping we find something.

We're on the bioship, heading out over the Caribbean Sea. Wallace and Robin have the front seats. Kon and I are at M'gann's right (hooray for shape shifting decks) and Aqualad is at her left. Everyone except Kon is in uniform. Thinking about it, I suppose he doesn't really have one. I can't think of a material which would stand up to the forces he puts it under.

Fact is, when it comes to stealth? I'm a huge liability. I mean, I glow orange. A lot orange, when I'm actually fighting. As a result, Batman's instructions to me were to remain airborne while my team mates go in on the ground. I'll provide mapping and -if necessary- fire support. If I get high enough I should be mistaken for either a plane or a star. I suggested waiting under water off the coast instead, but he was concerned that would affect my response time.

"We're approaching Santa Prisca."

The bioship's mind… or whatever… relays its sensors directly to M'gann's head via her telepathy. I thought about creating a construct map for everyone else to follow, but that might be rude, and the orange glow would be 'off theme' for stealth. Everyone else seems focused, and pretty sombre. I'm relaxed. After leaving Wallace and Kon in the gym and having a quick look through the BBC's current affairs section to try and get some idea what we would be doing. Nothing jumped out at me, so I spent most of the rest of the time either practising rapid construct formation or meditating. Maybe I just have less emotionally invested in this than a group who've idolised their mentors for as long as my team mates have.

Through the wind I can see clouds and -I think- a mountain top. The map Batman showed us had locations marks but I didn't pick up onrelief features. And then I know it's Monte Amarcoré, named after the home village of the captian of the first Spanish vessel to land here. The aboriginal name for it translated as something like 'desolate look out point', but since the aboriginal groups were completely broken up during the colonial occupation no one uses it.

Is the team ready? We can coordinate our efforts much better thanks to the training Aqualad organised. We haven'tcompletelygelled yet, but we're getting there. During the briefing Robin asked Batman who was in charge. I honestly had assumed that he'd be directing us from the mountain himself. I even offered to set up an uninterruptible communication link, but apparently that goes against the purpose of the exercise. Makes sense, really. Batman wants us to pick a team leader, but it's obviously Aqualad. We haven't even needed to discuss it.

"Drop zone A in thirty."

I thought about getting off the ship early, but since neither part of the group should be moving on the objective until everyone is down it really makes more sense for me to stay on board until the ship reaches the mid point. Otherwise, people looking up might wonder why the star is moving.

Kaldur stands and presses his belt buckle, turning his red vest dull grey. That technology isn't widespread. Either it's very expensive -which wouldn't make sense, otherwise he'd just have two vests- or no one in the Justice League is thinking about the fashion possibilities.

"Ready."

"Putting bioship in camouflage mode."

I wonder if camouflage drains power, or tires the ship out? If not we should have been in camouflage mode since we left the US coast. If the people below have radar… does this ship show up on radar? Have to ask afterwards.

The ship drops down to just above sea level, and Aqualad dives out through the floor hatch. If I had any doubts about his more than baseline Human physique before, I don't now. We're moving darn fast, and he hit the water without any indication of discomfort. There are anti-submarine nets around this part of the shore -not sure why- so he's going to cut through and make landfall on an empty stretch of coastline to nobble the ground based sensor network. Advanced infrared sensors and AK forty sevens. Weird. Not to mention the fact that the sensors don't have anyone looking after them on site. Or minefields.

*Heat and motion sensors are patched. It is now on a continuous loop. Move in.*

Wallace made some noise about wanting to use radio, but part of our group training session was devoted to getting used to telepathic communication and we're fairly used to it now. After our away sessions together even Kon didn't complain.

I'm out next. In order to minimise the chance of my light being seen my environmental shield will be on absolute minimum. I'll be very nearly hanging off the ring until I get to two kilometres up. My active power level is so low that the sigils on my chest and arms have returned to the grey of the rest of the material. I rise and walk to the back of the ship. Hands clasped at my chest I lean into the rear door, which opens around me as I fall through the gap. It's a bit like diving. The ringarrests my motiononce I'm clear and the ship carries on to the deployment zone for the rest of the team. I rise, with the ring notifying me of our height at intervals.

I could use OrangeVision to watch the ship, but that might brighten my aura. I'm rising at around ten meters per second, so I'll be ready in about three minutes.

*Drop zone B.*

Telepathic communication also has the advantage of keeping team members separated from the main group notified on their progress. If M'gann had just spoken that, Kaldur and I wouldn't know they'd arrived.

Wallace just shifted the colour of his armour to black.

How do I know that?

Information did not come from this ring. Most plausible alternative is image sharing via telepathic link.

That can happen?

Affirmative.

Not getting that from Kaldur… So, I get it from M'gann because she's maintaining the link?

This ring lacks data on which to make further observations.

*Very impressive.*

M'gann just changed the colour of her own clothes, though I note with a mental eye roll that she left the big red cross over her centre of mass in place. I asked earlier and it isn't a Martian law enforcement thing. Martians don't usually bother with much in the way of clothing and straps across the chest were once used for carrying tools and other objects. Later, it just became fashion.

Hm. If I'm getting more detail from her…

I try thinking the image of a sniper noticing and taking aim at the red cross in the dark. I feel her surprise as she receives it, and I smile as she darkens the cross to a less noticeable dull red. Progress!

*No capes, no tights. No offense.*

Just about the only thing about Superman which Kondoesn'tadmire. I'll have to see what happened to his original bodysuit, the one ruined during his escape from Cadmus. If the League can replicate the technology that it used then he might end up with a skin tight costume that actually makes sense. Superman could end up using the material as well. Might help them have a conversation.

I get why Superman finds being around him weird, but a single conversation wouldn't kill him, surely? I asked Diana about it, and apparently Kal-El isusuallyvery interested in everything Kryptonian. I suppose it's the American thing of obsessing about your heritage, like how many New Yorkers will describe themselves as Irish despite never having been to Ireland. Maybe me describing him as Kon-El's father was a bit much. I said it because I thought that was how Kon thought of him, and it is biologically true…

*It totally works for you.*

Seems M'gann likes the way he looks now just fine. And without thinking about it I send her the image of a sweaty Kon pumping iron. I feel her eyes widen. Shouldn't have done that.

*Ih ih ih ih in that, that you can totally do good, good work in those clothes.*

Nearly as smooth as Wallace. I feel her hide her blush with invisibilityandher cloak.

From up here you can see the lights around the touristy parts of the island on the west coast. Quite a nice place to visit, if you don't mind the armed guards and can ignore the occasional peasant getting beaten up in the alleyways. Most hotels are on the beach, so the interaction between foreigners and 'free-range' locals is kept to a minimum.

I feel a squawk of alarm from M'gann as she, Robin and W… Kid Flash -mission now- dive aside as Superboy jumps down from the bioship without a harness. He seems to like doing that. Maybe he's testing his might against the ground?

*Knew I didn't need a line.*

*And yet, creating aseismic eventmight not have helped us much with thecovert.*

M'gann decides to do the job.

*Aqualad, Orange Lantern. Drop B is go.*

*Orange Lantern at altitude.Beginning scans.*

An orange sphere appears around me. One of the things I really liked about the film 'Avatar' was the computer monitors where a hand gesture could transfer a document or program from one terminal to another. My WarSphereTM construct feeds information from my scans onto orange screens on the interior surface, and they respond to my touch. I originally tried having them respond to my thoughts but that got a bit chaotic. Having actual monitors would help as I'd get colour. Maybe some sort of liquid crystal thing that could roll flat? I could stick it in subspace, and it wouldn't actually need any processing capacity.

*Main team, head for the factory. I'll track your GPS and rendezvous ASAP.*

*Roger that.*


	39. 45

22nd July

20:21 GMT -4

I'm now tracking everything.

Sort of. I tried making myself aware of every potential enemy on the island, and couldn't cope. So I've created windows monitoring each of the larger concentrations of armed personnel and arranged them by region. One group in the area around the factory looks like central casting South American rebels, but it's the other that appears to hold the place. They appear to have a wider range of racial backgrounds, and they're wearing the red hoods that the ring informs me are characteristic of members of the Kobra organisation.

Unfortunately, GI Joe doesn't exist in this parallel, so I can't make the obvious joke.

I passed that information on to the others. Robin said that this wasn't in accordance with Kobra's usual MO. Doesn't really change the mission; we still need to get eyes in the factory and to find out where the Venom is going.

I've also found the airfield, and truck depot. Ah, for a bit of a run up and a kinetic harpoon. They appear to be stacking some creates near what looks like the centre of the landing area.

Bane supposedly has links to the Santa Priscan government, mostly in a money-for-pretending-you're-not-there kind of way. No actual localmilitaryunits in the area, though. Maybe he doesn't want them to know that he's been ejected from his -and their- revenue source. They'd get a lot of good will handing him over to North American or South American authorities. Actually located the man himself, as well.Thatfelt weird. I can see you, mister major supervillain, but you can' t see me.

Kid Flash and Superboy were in favour of ambushing a small patrol of Bane's men for information, but Aqualad reminded them that this was a covert recon mission. One burst of gunfire and our location would be given away, and no local faction would make a point of knocking it's enemies out and not killing them. Wanting to avoid the patrols resulted in a minor detour from the team's planned route, moving back around a rock formation to approach from another angle.

I can't hear the gunfire from up here with the WarSphere active, but M'gann passed along the noise as patrols from the two hostile local factions encountered one another, Bane leading the locals personally. It gives me the chance to observe the differing tactics the two sides use. The Kobras know how to use their weapons, and from what I can tell their guns are of a higher quality. But the locals know how to use the terrain. Two hold fire and flank the robe-wearers, killing most of them with a grenade and flushing the rest into the fire of the rest of their unit.

Bane closes the distance fast once they're off balance. He grabs the most alive looking Kobra cultist, says something, then..

Oh.

He picked him up by his legs and swung his head into a tree trunk.

That's the first time I've seen someone killed.

With the ones killed by bullets and shrapnel the robes conceal the fatal injuries. The one Bane killed, his head isverybroken.

Bane's men scavenge guns and ammunition from the corpses and move into the jungle.

*The two patrols have encountered one another. Kobra… lost.*

The reply comes from Aqualad.

*Understood.*

There are a few minutes until they reach the bluff overlooking the airfield.

Maybe it's the fact that I'm seeing it in orange, on a screen. I'm not sure. I like to think I'm empathic enough to feel bad that someone else is dead. But not this time. It's just, oh, they're dead, I'll stop tracking them. The nearest I've previously experienced to something like this was an episode ofJimquisition where he showed a news clip of a man committing suicide at a press conference, and to be honest that didn't show very much. Maybe it'll hit home later.

Aqualad should meet up with the others just before they reach the viewpoint.

I wonder if Bane's group are going to do a completionist run? Use their superior knowledge of the terrain to attack and destroy isolated groups? I mean, unless the head of Kobra is here in person they're going to have to kill every cultist to push them out. Might as well do it while they're not together, right? That would give us time before we have to worry about them coming in behind us.

Ring, detail scan on the landing field.

And then I know what's there. The crates definitely contain drugs. There's Venom, but it's been modified from what I saw in the League's files. The guys moving the stuff don't have more than trace amounts on them, probably residue in their robes. Cultists register slightly oddly to my avarice detector. These guys evaluate their worth purely in terms of the goals of the organisation and directions of their master. Fully indoctrinated, normal wants and needs redirected or repressed.

Hmm.

Ring, scan for Jeffrey Franklin Burr, aka 'Kobra'.

He's in the factory, standing on a catwalk near the centre. He's bald now, and his face is severe and humourless.

*Orange Lantern to team. Kobra himself is on site. Repeat, I have positive ID on Jeffrey Burr, aka Kobra.*

I feel Robin tense, but the other's don't respond. He picks up on their lack of response too.

*If Kobra's here in person, then this is big.*

Wallace misses the point.

*We get it, Kobra wanted super-cultists, mystery solved. Radio Bat's and we'll be home in time for-*

*W- Kid Flash, the cultists aren'tusingthe Venom. And the stuff they're loading up reads as different from the normal product.*

*So they're shipping it somewhere else. So what?*

Aqualad's on the case.

*So we need to know either the name of the buyer or the name of the destination. Orange Lantern, can you see a way inside?*

*The cargo entrance is only lightly guarded but is well lit, and has clear lines of sight all around. Oh, hang on, it looks like there's a passageway in the rocks near where you'll come out. Might be some rubble in the way. Could be an old mineshaft, or escape route in case of attack. I don't read any defences inside.*

I send an image of the entrance to M'gann.

*We will take it.*

They reach the top of the bluff. Robin stops to take a look at the airfield for himself, while M'gann directs Superboy to the boulder covering the entrance.

*Look at all that product. They could keep every Venom addict in the US going for years with that!*

Superboy lifts the boulder out of the way without apparent effort.

*Aqualad, I am aware that Kobra is a very high priority target. If we conclude that the mission is complete I am prepared to make a swoop and grab on him before we leave.*

I could also turn him into an orange construct and pass everything he knows about his organisation onto the police, but I don't mention that.

*I do not think it appropriate to send you in alone.*

*I defer to your judgement, but the risk would be minimal. I'd fly through the roof and leave the same way. The grab itself would take as long as I needed to get a clear shot at him. The guns they're using won't scratch my shields. The Kobra Cult do make use of metahumans but unless they have a very fast flier they won't catch me.*

*I will consider it, but apprehending Kobra is not our primary assignment.*

*Understood.*

The group enters the tunnel.


	40. 46

22nd July

20:34 GMT -4

At the end of the tunnel there's a service lift. Robin crouches in front of it and tries to access it with his computer. Turns out it's a simple electronic device with no processing power. Once I confirm that there isn't anyone close enough to hear it they enter and descend. At the bottom there's a small generator which powers the thing and another tunnel, this time leading towards the underground portion of the factory. At the end ofthattunnel there's a heavy blast door, and Robin gets his hack fix. That takes them into a locker room, which in turn leads to what I presume to be a mixing room. Large metal cylinders provide cover and concealment, though I don't think having them leak from bullet impacts would be very healthy.

*All clear.*

I see Robin sprint forwards into the room, moving from cover to cover. Aqualad is not happy.

*Robin. Weneedtostay together.*

*I'll be back in a minute.*

*Stay put. I'll get our intel and be back before the Boy Wonder.*

*Oh, for goodness sake, Wallace.*

*Oh El, we're on a mission. Remembercode names?*

*Remember staying together and supporting one another? Look, Robin's gone up onto the catwalk around the room you're in now. Looks like one cultist in the control room directly above your current position. There are no guards likely to reach you soon, so I suggest heading there.*

*Agreed.*

I send a map of the route to M'gann, but Aqualad has a better idea.

*M'gann, fly up and support Robin.*

*On it.*

The cultist operating the machinery gets one bewildering moment of staring at her before Robin knocks him out from behind with a hand held spray.

*Good distraction, Miss Em.*

I watch as the others hurry quietly around the room. The lack of guards in the production areas is a little puzzling. Maybe they're just here to produce the one batch? They clearly know that Bane wants this place back.

Another screen draws my attention. Kobra has descended to ground level and is talking to a scrawny woman and a truly huge bloke with hardened skin and… ugh… are those cracks? The woman reads as Selinda Flinders, aka Shimmer. She isn't listed as being a Kobra cultist and she isn't wearing the robes. Mercenary work, maybe? Nothing on the big guy.

*Orange Lantern to team. Be advised, Kobra has at least one supervillain with him. He's not on the League's database yet, but he's huge.*

Aqualad responds as they make it to the control room.

*Define 'huge'?*

*At least as big as Doctor Desmond. Maybe a bit broader.*

This perks Robin's interest.

*Think they're producing the Blockbuster Formula here?*

Oh, whoops.

*I'm sorry, I can't check. I didn't think to record it's chemical structure.*

*Don't worry about it. I'll soon… find… out…*

Another screen blinks at me.

*Guys, there's a transport helicopter coming in. Notcertainit's coming here, but it is heading in this direction.*

*Is it likely that they will spot you?*

Aqualad, if an unarmed helicopter can take a Lantern…

*Anyone can spot me, but they're flying fairly low. They shouldn't be able to identify me.*

*Very well. Maintain surveillance. Alert us if anything changes.*

Kid Flash reaches Robin first.

*Rob, what have you got?*

*Chemical formulas. It looks like theyareproducing the Blockbuster Formula here. Or something like it. I think… I think they'vecombinedthe two.*

*According to this, Kobra's new juice is three times stronger than Venom, and the effects are permanent. But how did Kobra get access to Project Blockbuster?*

*Our mystery buyer must also be Kobra's supplier! Using the cult to create a Venom - Blockbuster super formula!*

I feel obliged to jump in.

*Let's not jump to conclusions. The two may be unrelated. A cultist working under cover at Cadmus could have passed to formula on to them.*

Aqualad thinks for a moment.

*Orange Lantern. How much of the new formula remains to be loaded?*

*Looks like two forklift loads. They'll be done soon. They're not bothering with the remaining regular Venom. Kobra and the big guy are going out to meet the helicopter now. Two guards entering the floor below you.*

*I believe we now have enough information to call in the League.*

Sounds like. There's a pause for a moment.

*Orange Lantern, they have jammed the radio. Are you able to send a message to Batman?*

!Our mission!

!Not his!

*I generally use radio waves as well. I might be able to message one of the other Lanterns, but I don't know where they are at the moment. If they're on Oa, or near the other side of the Sector…*

I can feel the smug emanating from Kid Flash.

*You send messages with… what was it? Early twenty first century Earth technology?*

*The ring can send messages in more advanced formats, but our mountain doesn't have the receivers for them.*

*Maybe you shoulda thought of that before the start of the mission.*

*Doyouknow how to build a Bleed Fracture-Pulse receiver?*

Kon's feeling combative.

*We can take them.*

Aqualad is having none of it.

*No. This is a recon mission, not a combat operation. We will exfiltrate and head outside of the jamming area.*

Wallace isn't happy.

*But they'll get away!*

*If it comes to it, I'm confident that I can disable to helicopter with minimal risk to myself. The only thing I can see that might threaten my shields is that big metahuman.*

*Robin, download as much data as you can. We'll need to transmit this to the League.*

*… Fine.*

And then a rocket hits the forklift and explodes.


	41. 47

22nd July

20:48 GMT -4

The hell!?

*Aqualad to Orange Lantern. What just happened?*

Another rocket shreds a group of cultists who had hunkered down to prepare for a rush.

*Give me a moment.*

A small group of fighters are firing rockets from the tree line. Either they have superb marksmanship, or those are being guided somehow.

*Bane's men fired rockets at the landing zone. Kobra's sending cultists back into the factory to secure it while the big meta goes after the guerrillas. Youneedto get outnow.*

*Understood.*

They begin falling back, jumping down to the ground floor with M'gann's help rather than going all the way around the catwalk. They just about make it to cover by the time the first cultists enter the room and notice that the guy in the control room isn't responding. The team are already in the tunnels by the time the cultists start a search. I can't tell exactly how obvious the secret door is from here, but with a little luck they won't be able to go through it without extra equipment.

If Bane's people aren't rushing, that was a diversion. It clearly wasn't laid on for our benefit. There's still a minute or so until the helicopter touches down. What am I missing?

I feel M'gann's alarm.

!My team!

!Mine!

Bane.My team is surrounded by bombs. That will not do.

I drop the WarSphere, switch my environmental shield back to minimum and aim myself at their location. With a little luck I'll be mistaken for misdirected ordnance.

Ring, what is he saying?

"Halt, children. I'm feeling… explosive."

Hammy supervillain monolog coming up.

*I'm inbound. I'm.. I'm not completely sure that I can suppress those explosives.*

"I was a little worried when I found that my secret entrance had been uncovered. I wasn't expecting the Justice League Junior."

Aqualad starts to organise.

*Kid, you'll need a running start.*

"I. Want. My factory back. If you're not here to take down my enemy, then perhaps the Justice League will come to avenge their sidekicks. Blowing the tunnel up with you inside should provide them the motivation needed."

Ring, prep armour constructs, and target his fighter's guns.

"And when the smoke clears, Santa Prisca will be mine once more."

Kid Flash moves.

"With what? This trigger thingy?"

"Range achieved."

I grin. Coils of orange light reach down to seize rifles out of guerilla hands.

"Don't you know, you never split the party

Cleric in the back, keep those fighters hale and hearty"

Orange armour constructs appears around my team mates. Superboy lunges at Bane, who takes a surprise fist to the diaphragm. M'gann telekinetically catches a thrown grenade and hurls it into the distance, where it explodes brightly.

"Wizard in the middle,

Where she can spread some light."

Wallace hits the outermost fighters while Aqualad and M'gann use precision blasts of water and telekinesis to slam those closest to them into the scenery. I hit the ground just in time to put manacle constructs around Bane's arm as he tries to punch Superboy. I then put another around his neck to pull his face down into Superboy's fist.

"And you never let that damn… thief…"

I stop.

"Where's Robin?"

I didn't look for him when I created the armour because he doesn't like using it. Oh, he can take care of himself. Bane shows some signs of life, so I pop a StunCrownTM construct over his head and activate it. He goes rigid for a moment, and then slumps.

It seems that my team mates have mastered the art of rendering people unconscious using kinetic force without causing lasting damage. Even M'gann, which I find a little surprising. I wonder what the secret is? I begin piling unconscious guerrillas into neat heaps.

*Seriously, where's Robin?*

Aqualad deactivates his Water Bearers and shrugs.

*He has an unfortunate habit of doing that.*

Kid Flash walks back, eating a chocolate bar.

"Haven't seen him. Hey, what did I do to finally qualify for actual armor?"

"You just looked so gosh darn fragile."

Actually, all the armour will do now is draw attention to us. The constructs dissipate.

M'gann looks at our captives.

"I didn't bring any rope."

Superboy loots one of the fallen.

"This guy did. Think he'll mind if we use it?"

Did he just make a joke?

It's been too long since Scouts for me to remember much about knots, let alone how to tie someone up reliably. Wallace and Aqualad on the other hand have the right skill set. Is that something I should learn? Not sure. My StunCrownTM is more reliable, but that would probably look like inappropriate brutality in this situation. It temporarily shorts out the motor cortex, but it actually causes less risk to long term health than the air tasers used by Batman and Robin. Two mornings of studying neurophysiology well spent.

I suppose if there's no one around who knows rope tying then I'd probably be on my own anyway. Not sure how all of the Venom in Bane's system will affect the paralysis effect.Don't want him getting away.Hmm.

"Would it be acceptable for me to remove all traces of Venom from Bane's body?"

Aqualad and Kid Flash share a look before Aqualad turns to me.

"You are able to do that safely?"

"It's a single molecule whose structure I know. Shouldn't be a problem. Not sure about the withdrawal symptoms, but I can probably do something to reduce them."

Aqualad smiles slightly. Thinking about it, he's probably second only to Superboy when it comes to being sombre. Wonder why?

"I think that would be acceptable."

I raise my left hand over the recumbent Bane.

"Ring, locate and remove all Venom molecules. Identify and repair damage caused to all systems."

"Compliance."

Strobing beams of orange light project from the ring. There doesn't seem to be much of a pattern, until Iwonderhard enough and I understand that it's targeting the Venom sites in order of concentration. Watching Bane visibly deflate is… unnerving. Particularly when his neck and face shrivel so much that his mask comes loose. Once the ring finishes Kid Flash steps forwards and picks the mask up.

"Souvenir."


	42. page 7

4th September

17:27 GMT 3

The conversation with Bart rather trailed off.

Are you there?*

M'gann? Oh, thank goodness.

Did you get him? Is he alright?*

Yes, he's here. He's dazed, but he should be okay. Are you in a safe place? Can I share what he remembers?"

You've probably got better lines of sight than we have. Can you see anything?*

There's vehicles at the other end of the valley. Nothing at your end. If they've called in reinforcements I guess they haven't got here yet.*

Bart?*

No response.

Kid Flash?*

Nothing from him.

Kid Flash isn't called Bart.*

He isn't?*

No, he's called Wally. I think I must be out of range.*

If you're out of range, how am I hearing you?*

You seem to be very sensitive to telepathic communication. That's sort of why I, um…*

[His forehead pressed against mine, his hands stroking my eye ridges.Reassurance.*

Her perspective? Was I meant to see that?

Let's… Let's leave worrying about that until we've got our full memories back. I'll let the others know that you're coming.*

Wally..? Wallace West. Not Bart Allen. If that's the case, then I know less about where I am than I thought I did. Wait. I remember him telling me that only his gran and his geography teacher call him Wallace. Getting my memories of the team back might not be that difficult after all. Getting back the rest..? Well, is anything particularly interesting likely to have happened back home? Probably not, and if it did then it's unlikely to be relevant to me anymore.

"M'gann's got Superboy, and she's on her way back."

Artemis arches an eyebrow. Which are black, I notice. The bits of the notebook which weren't in code weren't very helpful.

"And you know this, how?"

"Telepathy. Apparently I'm really sensitive to it."

Wallace looks around.

"Did she say anything about seeing Robin?"

"No. Should she have?"

"You saw the memories. He's gotta still be out here."

"Yeah, but he'sRobin. I'm sure he can take care of himself for a few hours. Did either of you recognise the other voice?"

Wallace shakes his head. Artemis' head bows slightly.

"Alright. Whomightit have been?"

Wallace perks up.

"Speedy?"

I think about it. I think I've hadsomethingto do with him, but I'm not getting the flow of memories I do from my other team mates.

"I don't..thinkso. Anyone else?"

Artemis looks up.

"Doesn't Wonder Woman have a sidekick?"

I remember being over the Mediterranean Sea, trying to grapple her with chain constructs. We're training. She dodges, and punches them aside faster than I can react.

"Yes.Me, apparently. If you're talking about Wonder Girl, I don't remember her being with us."

"Yeah, I'm with Oh El on this one. Pretty sure I'd remember someone as hot as her."

Artemis regards him levelly.

"Not.. that.. she's anything compared toyou."

I feel.. something, at the back of my mind. Looking up, I see M'gann fly over the ridge with a slumped Kon in tow.

What possibles haven't we eliminated?

"Do we..? Is there an Aqua.. lad..?"

Even as I say it, the memories come flooding back. Myself, Kon, M'gann and him sitting in front of a large television watching an action film about a man dressed as a giraffe. An underwater training session where I had to learn to block invisible attacks that could come from any angle. Him punching me in the face when I tell him to in order to demonstrate the strength of my armour.

Did everyone..?*

"Yeah."

Wallace nods. Artemis shakes her head to clear it.

"If Kaldur's out in this heat… That's not good for a guy with gills."

M'gann lands. Kon slumps into a sitting position next to her, head cradled in his hands. I walk over and crouch down next to him.

"You alright?"

He slowly raises his head, and then smiles when he sees me.

"A giant spring?"

"Sorry."

I stand and offer him my hand. He takes it, and I help him to his feet. As he comes upright, he staggers slightly and stumbles into me. I reach out to steady him and misjudge, my hands going around his waist.

Um.

His shirt's still not there.

"Um, sorry." "Er, sorry."

We both step backwards at the same time.

Ring, do I have a shirt for him?

A short pulse of orange light, and a new black t-shirt with a red 'S' covers his torso. He looks at it, then at me. I look at him.

Apparently, I have his clothes stored in the ring. What exactly..?

Artemis coughs.

Right. Right.

We turn to Wallace.

"We need to find Kaldur. Orange Lantern, can you scan for him?"

"Ring, where's Kaldur?"

Ooooh dear…

A Bialyan military encampment, apparently.

4th September

18:22 GMT 3

"Warning; low power. Eight percent remaining."

Even with an invisible telepathic flier on your side, negotiating a desert filled with enemy soldiers is not easy. Approaching the camp where Kaldur was being held simply wasn't an option until after nightfall. Making a virtue of necessity we used the time to return to the bioship, restock on arrows and food. Each of us also spent some time being ministered to by M'gann, trying to get our memories back. Ithinkthat I'm all here now, though of course the thing about memory loss is that you don't remember what you're missing. I still plan to get the ring to double check, later.

Anyway, that's how I remembered that the bastards have my cat.

I sent Teekl in with M'gann. Shecanfly, though she doesn't like doing it after that time she got distracted by a bird and fell off a cliff. That's also how I know they haven't killed her; she'd have respawned at the ring if they had. She'd threatened to go into Happy Harbour to find things to hunt unless I took her with us. Ithinkthat's what she was threatening; it was either that, or she was threatening to literally ingest the entire town, which I find unlikely. It's hard, but if I close my eyes andwantto know hard enough, I can just about feel her location. She's in the same tent as Kaldur, but I get the impression that her movement is restricted by something.

None of us remember what happened after M'gann went scouting, but it seems likely that whatever wiped our memories did so from in there. Maybe the memories further back from that point are more accessible? Whatever happened, that's where they're holding Kaldur. No sign of Robin. There was a chance that he would have fallen back this way, but I doubt that he remembers enough to do so. Other places he could be include the scanner unit, and somewhere overlooking the camp.

And captured, of course. I suggested that I scan for him, but Wallace pointed out that we couldn't really rescue him faster than we were going to anyway. Something else I wasn't expecting: with Kaldur absent… I'm sort of in charge. A strange experience for me, considering that I can't effectively direct or support the others with no ring power. And I haven't actuallypractisedteam direction.

I had a go at transferring myself back to base for a recharge, but apparently the minimum charge for that is fourteen percent. I hadn't even realised that ithada minimum. I also tried and failed to contact the League's Green Lanterns. Wallace was most irate when he realised what I was doing, but I wasn't able to make a connection with any ring but Alan's anyway, and he wasn't wearing it. I'm going to need to go over that with Guy during our next session. Maybe there's a form of words I need to use? Or maybe the Greenies are just on a different circuit, I don't know.

Now under cover of darkness, we're returning. I'm reluctant to completely blow the stealth aspect of the missionagain, but with tanks destroyed, team mate captured and… And that thing I did south east of here, I think that it's a bit late to really worry about it. M'gann's scouting ahead. Kon's super eyes can see into the infra red, so I've put him on rearguard duty. I'm a little ahead, on the grounds that with my environmental shield and body armour I'm probably the second toughest, and the fact that Icanget night vision if I really need it. Peter Gambi told me this armour could take assault rifle fire. I'm hoping I don't have to find out, but if it's a choice between that and seeing if Artemis had bullet proof abdominals…

At least with so little power I'm not glowing.

Computer in sight. I can see Robin!*

Glad to hear it. Any Bialyan military units?*

I can't see any, but- Yes! They're hidden under the sand!*

Kid Flash, Superboy, go.*

A dark blur passes by my left side, and I hear Kon launch himself off behind me. Artemis and I accelerate to a jog, and I turn my pistol to low power.

M'gann. How many?*

Four immediately next to the computer. Another ten nearby. They're attacking!*

Don't add Robin to the network, it'll just confuse him. Assist in whatever way you can. Artemis and I will join you as we get there.*

Trying to run faster will just get me bogged down in the sand. My ring granted athleticism means I can do this without getting totally knackered, and it doesn't look like Artemis is having any trouble keeping up. Really, we just need a good line of sight from the top of one of these dunes for her to loose her bolas arrows from. Icouldfire to disable with my pistol, but I never tested it against Human type targets and I'm not sure of the cut off point between agonising burns and cauterised limb stump.

We make it to the top, but we still can't see them from here and so we keep going. Iblinka moment of night vision, and can't see any obstacles. For a moment I consider trying to reach out to M'gann to see what's going on, but I don't want to risk distracting either of us. I can hear automatic rifle fire, along with harsh grunts and shouting in a language I assume to be Arabic. Artemis puts an arrow to string as we get to the bottom of that dune and start up the next. I'm glad deserts get so cold at night, otherwise I'd be sweating like a pig.

Move!

I stumble as the sand gives more than I expect it to under my left foot, and she's past me and heading to the top. As I right myself and resume my ascent she crests the rise, aims, and looses. As I reach a level at which I can see beyond the dune, she lowers her bow.

Looking down, I see that all of the Bialyan soldiers are down. Robin and Wallace are walking towards each other at the bottom of the flat area in which we put the computer. Kon is picking up the downed soldiers -aflickerof night vision doesn't show any serious injuries- and binding their wrists and ankles. M'gann's floating over…

M'gann, in future, please remain invisible until the perimeter is confirmed as secure.*

Her right hand goes to her mouth.

Sorry. Um, I can't sense any more minds.*

And they'd probably have activated robots if they had any. Okay, I think we're good.*

I follow Artemis down the slope.

"KF! Man it's good to see a familiar face."

Robin and Wallace clasp hands. With my memories back I realise that this is Richard Grayson. I wonder how that will affect the timeline relating to other events I'm familiar with? We've got an Aqualad, and Garth didn't want the job. Donna can't spare the time and Speedy thought the suggestion that he should join anything other than the League itself was insulting. I don't remember anyone else being on the Titans starting line up, but M'gann and Superboy should only be joining much later. No Cyborg, Raven, Starfire or Changeling at all.

"Hey Rob. Memory loss?"

"Six months! Let's finish hogtying these creeps and compare notes."

I halt at the bottom of the dune.

"Good evening Robin. Everyone, if we could avoid clustering up? That would be great."

He turns his head to look at me.

"And you are?"

"Orange Lantern 2814."

I can feel him preparing to make a smart comment.

"Whatever you're thinking, you've probably already said it and forgotten about it. Miss Martian has been able to restore our memories to the rest of us. Do you have any objection to her repeating the process on you?"

"Ah. Miss..?"

I point upwards to M'gann.

"Oh, tch, right."

He smiles at her as she descends.

"Go ahead."

I watch them long enough to make sure that there aren't any problems, then walk over to the computer. I don't remember mirroring it's scanning with the ring, and we might not be able to take it with us when we go.

Our data.

"Ring, copy of all data, then fry all sensitive components."

The ring chimes, then an orange strobe flashes out and I hear a series of popping noises. Thin plumes of acrid black smoke drift out of the exposed components.

Artemis and Kon have finished with the prisoners. Queen Bee supposedly uses some sort of mind control on those who associate with her. Wasabi Islam is much less prevalent here than back home, but the area's still fairly patriarchal. And not just in a no-heads-of-state kind of way, thank you Wonder Woman. If she's used her ability on these soldiers, I might be able to read the physiological changes with the ring. I don't know how much power that would take, and it's quite possible none of them have met her personally. Or were important enough to be worth controlling.

"Artemis, which of these guys is in charge?"

She glances at me, then pulls out a torch and examines their uniforms.

"They're Desert Lions. Elite unit. This guy-"

She points at one.

"-is a sergeant. The officer's probably at the base."

"Any chance he's met Queen Bee?"

She turns off the torch and shrugs.

"Maybe. Depends how important this place is to her. Wouldn't count on it, though. Why?"

"Wondering if I can find out how she influences people. But, with this little power, it just isn't worth chancing it."

4th September

18:32 GMT 3

Robin's back to full functionality, and we've moved up to a rock formation near the encampment. I've got an orange diagram of the place, and the others are clustered around. One main tent. No soldiers inside, though several are on guard outside. Through Teekl's eyes -once the bloody Moggie could be persuaded to open them- I see five scientists, some sort of machine with a spherical unit on top, and Kaldur strapped to a platform.

Every so often, they turn a dial, the sphere spins, and Kaldur gets electrocuted.

He's tough, and Ithinkthat his tattoos give him electrical resistance, but we need to get in there. When we realised what they were doing to him I had to physically restrain Kon from just leaping in there.

Another tent appears to be serving as the barracks. A third smaller one as a command tent. There doesn't appear to be a mess tent… Maybe they haven't got around to unpacking it yet. There are five large military transportation trucks on the side furthest away from us, three heavy Jeep type vehicles and two platform mounted anti-aircraft missile batteries with attendant flatbeds. Ichecked, and neither contain anything I recognise as a gravity scanner. Maybe wecouldhave brought the bioship in? No. Couldn't take the risk they could be switched to hit ground targets.

Twenty two soldiers in total. Artemis tells me that taking those we've already encountered into account, that's normal platoon strength for Desert Lions, and Robin agrees. The officer -a First Lieutenant according to Artemis- is in the command post, along with two other soldiers and some equipment. There doesn't seem to be any reaction to our fight with the group we fought earlier, but I haven't seen any armoured vehicles since those tanks. I don't know if they are all out on the search, or if there just aren't any more in the area. Troop movements near this border are considered to be of international concern, so maybe they didn't think they could risk it?

Also ensconced with the Lieutenant is Doctor Simon Jones, better known to my colleagues by his nom de félonie, Psimon. Guess that explains what happened to our memories. I still don't remember confronting him, so I've no idea how he got us or why we weren't all captured or killed. Information on exactly what he can do is somewhat sketchy, for obvious reasons. And the only thing I remember about him from the comics is that he died when the Joker shot him in the head during Salvation Run.

"Warning; low power. Seven percent remaining."

Artemis, you and I will take the far side. I'll concentrate on destroying those vehicles to provide a distraction. I need you to watch my back, and watch out for Doctor Jones. He's wanted for violent offences everywhere he's ever been, so don't bother pulling your punches.*

How are you planning on taking out the trucks with seven percent power?*

I look at her, hold up my pistol and turn the dial to 'high power'.

She nods

M'gann, once the guards move away, go invisible and head for Kaldur. Kon, you'll deal with the missile batteries. I don't want them firing. Try not to set them off.*

Two more nods.

Wallace, you're our reserve. If you see something start to go wrong, intervene. Otherwise, just watch our backs. If anyone runs into Doctor Jones,do notmess about. He isverydangerous, and I don't think any of us want to lose another six months. Robin…*

Oh, for goodness sake.

Wallace winces.

Yeah, he does that.*

Where's he gonethistime?Robin!*

Just providing a little extra distraction.*

The ring shows his position, moving around the base in a clockwise direction.

Fuck's sake… Artemis, with me.*

I lead us anticlockwise at a jog. I'm not sure how important it is for me to avoid attracting attention at this point, so I err on the quiet side.

M'gann, get up in the sky and relay any unexpected movements.*

On it.*

I hit a level clear patch, and borrow her vision for a second. Everyone's still where we expected. Good. Ideally, a distraction should have the capacity to turn into a genuine attack, and in a situation like this destroying their trucks and communications would leave them stranded for a while. I was going to have Robin go after their comms andif possibletheir hard drives so we could find out what actually happened here, but he has to go and do hisownfuckingthing.

Robin,if you can spare the time, could youpossiblysee your way clear to-*

Looks like I've broken radio silence!*

Fifteen seconds. Explain.*

I set up some smoke bombs to broadcast. They'll send a squad, then boom! Sleepytime.*

Yousplit the party.Again. Please do the rest of us the courtesy of discussing things like that in future. If you aren't too busy, your target is any and all intelligence sources.*

Artemis and I reach the end of our flank. There are two visible guards at the flattened end where the trucks presumably entered.

Artemis, the far one, on three.*

Iburrowan orange filament under the sand toward the closer.

One, two,-*

She notches a gas arrow.

-three.*

The constructsurgesup in front of my target and stuns him. Artemis' target takes the arrow in his chest, coughs twice, then falls. We're already in motion.

Cross and go high. I'll stay on this side.*

As soon as I get far enough forward to get a clear shot, I activateOrangeVisionto check for passengers, drop to a crouch, and put a beam of red energy into the engine of the closest lorry.

The cab crumbles. The place the beam hits vaporises in a perfect circle, and for a moment I can see the interior of the vehicle as it ploughs through the chassis before the fuel tanks explode, obliterating what's left of the front half.

I blink twice, and resist the impulse to stare at the gun. Not bad. Good job I left the OrangeVision up, or the flash might have blinded me.

M'gann, go when ready.*

Right.*

I hear shouts as I line up the next shot. I don't have such a good angle on the cab, but I can see the external fuel tanks attached to the underside. The pistol has almost no recoil, and I find aiming it simplicity itself.

The beam and the fuel explosion cleave the truck in twain, sending the cab bouncing forward before toppling over and spinning the trailer section around. It tips then rolls, spilling boxes onto the desert sands.

Do I have their attention?*

I hear engines starting. I sight a Jeep, and turn the pistol to medium range. Should narrow the beam. Don't want to kill the guys inside, after all.

Two Hummers heading this way, and about eight soldiers.*

I fire, slicing a line through the underside of the Jeep as it turns, cutting through at least two wheels and causing it to flip, slamming into the rear of another lorry. Not sure what happened to the guys inside.

One Hummer, and three more soldiers.*

Superboy, go. Can anyone see Psimon?*

There's a moment's silence, and I hear a crash as Kon lands. I line up another shot at a supply lorry as the other Jeep tries to go hull down behind it.

No one? Shit.*

4th September

18:36 GMT 3

I calculate the second Jeep's probable position, dial the pistol down to medium power and up to long range, and fire. The beam cuts through the lorry and the Jeep behind jerks to a halt. One of the soldiers jumps onto the back and swivels the roof mounted machine gun in my general direction. Two shots wiz past me.

Artemis, roof gu-*

A bolas arrow takes out his legs, and he falls hard.

Thank you.*

They're getting too close!*

Understood. Flash arrow, then pull back.*

Ring, location of Doctor Jones.

Teekl see Bad Head Man.

M'gann, Psimon's in-*

A sense of malevolent amusement.

Naughty naughty.*

Shit.

Artemis' flash arrow hits the camp entrance. Most of the guards are wearing night vision goggles. That must havehurt. I hear Artemis falling back, and rise to follow her. Bracing myself for the dash, I borrow Teekl's vision for a second.

Smug Bad Head Man stand in middle of room, staring into space. Strange Smell-M'gann-is visible only to the orange light. Coat Men panic as wind blows through the tent. Fish Man tied up. Metal box breaking.

I metaphorically cross my fingers, and follow Artemis at a dead run.

Teekl, assist M'gann.

I activate the radio on my belt.

"Telepathic communication compromised. Complete objectives as assigned, then return to evacuation point. No chatter."

I need to try and find a low lethality back up weapon.

My OrangeVision is unaffected by Artemis' flash. The soldiers who were hit went prone, and their colleagues are being more cautious. Artemis and I should be able to get away. I can't hear Kon, so I'm going to assume that he's taken out the missiles and fallen back. He should be heading toward the border and the bioship. Artemis and I will continue on our current heading until we're sure that we've evaded pursuit, then head for a pick up point over the border in the other direction. From there, we can signal for pick up.

Through our link, I feel Teekl press her fore claws against the barrier containing her. There's resistance, but now that she's actually motivated she's pushing through. Teekie hasn't really jelled with any of my team mates yet, though she does seem to find it amusing to stare at Kon while he's trying to concentrate on anything. He told me that he's considering adding cats to his list alongside monkeys.

I hear gunfire behind me, faster and light automatic rifles along with the heavier machine guns. I can't risk making contact at this point, but I should be able to get away with a ring scan. I wait while until I find myself running on a level patch of sand.

Ring, one second view.

A flash in my mind, and I see everything. I found through experimentation that while my brain couldn't cope with processing everything continuously, with ring assistance I could cope with seeing everything for a brief time.

Kon's falling back at speed, his targets destroyed. Since he's our second best bioship pilot -just ahead of me- he can get it running if we need to change tack. Robin got too adventurous in the command post, but Wallace bailed him out and they're heading away as well. M'gann is floating in the centre of a miniature tornado along with Doctor Jones in the main tent. Teekl's draped herself over M'gann's shoulder, and appears to be nuzzling her. Kaldur's free, but seems to be stunned. The spherical unit on top of the machine appears to be broken, and the spherical object it contained is on the floor.

I hear the roar of an engine behind me. Are they guessing, or are they tracking us somehow? They can't be tracking radio. Can't be the ring. they wouldn't mess about if they had their own, and there's no way Earth technology can trace it. Heat is possible, but we're skirting the dunes. They shouldn't be getting a direct sight line to us. Is the pistol that hot?Subspace it, draw a new one, low power, long range. Noise? We're louder than the background, but notthatloud and the echoes should make that method unreliable.

Another engine roar, as whatshouldbe the last Jeep continues pursuit. The Jeep I can take. So could Artemis, if what she said earlier about her explosive arrow was true. But the calculation becomes too complicated when I try to factor in the infantry. If they loaded it up, and jumped off when I first at their transport, I can't be sure that I could take them all down without lethal forceandprotect myself and Artemis. Even worse if they got a few shots off from the machine gun before the Jeep went down. Or if the second Jeep wasn't as badly damaged as I thought.

Could it be a drone? We're a bit stuck if it is. An orange or red beam would be an even better guide to our position, and I'd have to catch up with Artemis to get her to shoot it. Assuming it wasn't too high up, she's a good thirty metres ahead of me, and is mostly out of line of sight. A construct attack might work better, but that would light me up.

Ring, scan local area for aircraft.

Yep, drone with thermal imager. Perfect top down view. I don'tsuppose an EMP burst..? Hardened? Where'd they get the technology to do that to adrone? I could brute force it, but I don't want to spend the power. There must be a better way.

Warning; low power. Six percent remaining.

Alright. Giving away my position only matters if I have to stay there. I can't outrun the Jeep. I canprobablyoutrun the soldiers as the ring is fuelling my body in place of my insufficiently effective lungs, but I doubt that Artemis can and neither of us can outrun bullets. If the drone's gone, does the Jeep matter? Yes, but only until we clear the immediate area, then it's blind and finding us is guesswork.

I'm coming up to some sort of rise, sand giving way to stone. It isn't that high, and Artemis is already reaching the top.

Think.

Icandestroy the drone with the pistol. It's moving, but not fast enough to avoid a lightspeed attack. Then what? The soldiers will most likely continue on our most likely trajectory, which is more or less the one we're taking.

Would they stop to check their surroundings? Perhaps, perhaps not. But if they're going for speed at the moment, and I was under the sand…

How to let Artemis know? No. Don't. I can't carry it out until I reach her, and she needs to look like she was still moving until they lost the drone.

An image of Kon leaping comes to mind. That could work.

Drone perception, continuous.

I feel it's location.

ArcJump to Artemis.

I leave the ground. Rather than controlled flight, I'm hurtling into the air in the direction most likely to bring me into contact with Artemis. With the ring granting me extra sensory perception I can just about ignore the force of the wind and the sense of doom that comes from the certain knowledge that I will soon be falling. I close my water filled eyes, aim the pistol, and fire. It takes a second shot for me to hit the target, but then it's falling from the air. I open my eyes as I begin my descent. Artemis is off the rock already.

Adjust path.

A rough shove, and I'm aiming right for her.

The only useful thing to come out of my messing about earlier was learning exactly how easy burrowing through sand is with a power ring. You don't have to displace it, as transmuting it into a denser form is surprisingly easy.

I dial the pistol up to high power, and fire at the ground in the distance. Hopefully that will make them think we're over there.

Subspace it.

Artemis fast approaching, and things start happening a bit quickly. Aslowcommand drops my speed from 'death-hurtle' to merely fast. I crash into her, grab on as she tenses to fight me off,extendmy environmental shield around us as we fall andburrowbefore we hit the ground. A cocoon of dense crystal forms and is quickly covered by the surrounding sand.

"It's me. Stop stru-"

She tries elbowing me, and strikes my armour.

"They were using a drone to track us. I destroyed it. We're underground. They can't see us, and will probably drive right over us."

"And squash us!"

"I turned the sand to a dense crystal. Itshouldbe strong enough to take the weight."

"What aboutair!"

"We're both covered by my environmental shield. Oxygen provision costs very little power. My plan is, we wait here until they're well past us, then emerge and head to the border by a slightly different route."

She shifts slightly, becoming a little less tense. The small size of the space presses us together, and I'm somewhat relieved to note that my arm is across her abdomen and not elsewhere.

"Sorry I couldn't warn you, but radio and telepathy were compromised."

"Hfp. It'sfine. How long do you want to wait?"

"I'll take a scan in fifteen minutes."

4th September

21:40 GMT 3

Artemis and I are sitting on a hill on the Saudi Arabian side of the Saudi/Bialya border. A few miles behind us the lights of the town of Ha'il are visible, and when the wind blows in the right direction I can hear the noise of cars and muffled voices. I reopened the crystal pod a few minutes after the Jeep had passed, and we proceeded cautiously towards our extraction point on a slightly different vector. I checked for pursuit at frequent intervals, but nothing appeared to supplement the Jeep and we were easily able to evade that.

I had thought Artemis' costume.. ill-considered, if not outright ridiculous. Once the ring's charge ran out with a sad 'Charge depleted' I began to envy it. I had Mister Gambi design my own armour on the principle that I'd be fighting with the ring active. I can walk in it fine and run short distances in it well enough, but it really isn't suitable for desert night hikes. Artemis' athletic physique and lighter gear meant that she had to make an effort not to outpace me.

Assuming the others made it out alright, we should be getting picked up before too long. To be honest, I'd sort of assumed that they'd be here by now. Another half hour and I'm going to suggest that we walk into town and try phoning for League assistance. What to do while we wait..?

"I've been wondering… What's with the bow?"

Her head turns to me. I'd just been staring into space. Ithinkshe was watching the border for lights which might indicate pursuit. I don't think that Bialya would risk attacking something across the Saudi border; they're not stupid, and Qurac just hasn't cosied up to America in the way their neighbours have.

"What'd'you mean?"

"Well,Iknow that you're not related to Green Arrow. Hemighthave been teaching you, but, given the way Red Arrow's reacted to seeing you? Probably not forlong. So, y'know, given all the weapons out there… why a bent stick that fires pointy sticks?"

Her eyes narrow, but she decides to treat it as an actual enquiry and not an insult.

"It's a lot quieter than agunor something, easier to own legally, easier to transport. Carbon fibre doesn't set off metal detectors, and if I got stopped by police while carrying point arrows I could claim that it was sporting equipment."

"And those.. special arrowheads you were using?"

Her eyes drop to the ground for a moment.

"Those.. are a recent thing. Green Arrow's been sharing his stuff. He's… I think he's been missing Red Arrow? I don't know exactly how close they were-"

"Green Arrow adopted him three years ago, when he was fifteen, after the death of his natural parents."

That earns me a look. I shrug.

"Like I said, I looked up information on everyone before joining the team."

"Riiight. Well, normal arrows aren't always enough against armoured cars or people with super powers."

"How do you even get those to fly straight? Theycan'tbe aerodynamic."

"Looots a'practice."

"But the weight distribution-"

She squints at me

"Is entirely correct. The weight goes at the front. Basic aerodynamics."

Aerodynamics. That.. thing.. I don't have to bother with.

"No, I mean, like-"

"You mean thedrag."

"Um. Probably?"

"It's more difficult, but you just have to use more force."

I exhale through my lips.

"Your arms must be made of-"

There's a blast of air and I see a slight distortion in the sky as the rear hatch of the bioship opens just in front of us. Wallace waves at us from just inside.

"We've been looking all over for you two!"

"Is everyone alright?"

"Kaldur's still pretty shaken up, but aside from that, fine."

Artemis is already walking towards the opening as I rise to my feet. Wallace points at my hand.

"What's up with your ring?"

"Completely out of power. I'm glad the bioship's got air conditioning."

Wallace stands aside as Artemis walks in, then follows her into the cockpit. I stop at the threshold. I hear the door close and feel the slight pressure of acceleration.

"Why is there a giant metal ball in here?"

The ball rotates without assistance, rolls over to me, then swivels so that the small non-metallic area is… looking? At me. It's a slightly recessed circular patch of dark red, and has a lighted red line on it that resembles a slightly stretched omega. There are other, smaller lines and patches of purple. As I stare, I wonder it it's really dark red, or just that the lines get so thin that at this magnification it appears to be red.

After a moment, it beeps and warbles like aSimongame. What does that remind me of?

"Oh… New God technology. I'm assuming you're from New Genesis."

A duller beep. Kon looks at me.

"You know what it is?"

"I've seen similar technology before. Nothing quite like this, though. Mother Boxes are usually-"

I make a square with my hands.

"-about this big. Never seen a spherical one."

A warble, and it rolls over to where Kaldur is slumped in one of the rear seats. I walk past M'gann's pilot station and go to take the empty seat at the front right before I notice an orange glow. Turning, I see Teekl curled up on M'gann's lap. Her eyes open a little, notice me, then close again.

"Making friends are we, Teekl?"

M'gann looks down at the dozing cat, and takes her right hand off a steering column to rub her head.

"She wasreallyhelpful. When I fought Psimon inside my mind she bit him to distract him, and then she was able to enter our mindscape and attack him with me. I hadn't realised how complex her mind is."

"Ooo's a good diddle kitty den?"

That gets two open eyes and a sniff.

"Strange Smell Nice Smell."

She stretches and resettles. I plant myself in the front right chair.

"So, Robin, get anything useful?"

Robin has his arm computer plugged into a hard drive.

"Not sure. I've broken most of the encryption, but some of this? I've never seen anything like it. You said the sphere was from 'New Genesis'? Could they be dealing with Bialya?"

An angry beep from the sphere.

"Doubtit. Apokolips might, but this.. seems kind of small potatoes for them."

He smiles, and glances away from his work.

"Thought you were an atheist."

"New Gods is the best translation of their name for themselves. Apokolips and New Genesis are planets, inhabited by beings who are part organic humanoid, and part Platonic ideal form. The ruler of Apokolips, for example, is both a physically powerful man and the manifestation of the concept of tyranny. His courtiers include embodiments of the concepts of torture and of child abuse."

Uneasy and slightly disgusted looks from the team.

4th September

21:46 GMT 3

"Yes, it's exactly as bad as it sounds. If Bialyaisdealing with them somehow, the League needs to get on this."

Silence. I turn to the view screen. The augmented ambient lighting it provides means that I can see the desert, which will eventually give way to the Mediterranean Sea. We'll actually be passing over central Europe en route back to New England. Thinking about it…

"If anyone wants to get a zeta tube home, we can just stop off in Berlin or something. No need foreveryoneto stay on board. I can pilot the ship back..?"

No one seems eager. Oh well. I offered.

Wallace seems to have something on his mind.

"I've been meaning to ask: why'd you think you were dreaming?"

I shrug.

"Like I've said, my parallel doesn't have superheroes, or super powers. When I first got here I spent a.. spent a couple of hours just.. sitting on the moon."

I hold up my right hand, and flick it forwards.

"Staring into space, before I accepted it was really happening. And this was even more bizarre."

"You charged your ring before we left, right?"

Robin has some sort of technical diagram up on his arm computer, and he's watching me through it.

"Yes?"

"What exactly did you do that used up all that power?"

!Lie!

"Well,-"

M'gann giggles. Eyes move from me to her, and back again.

Darn it.

Artemis raises an eyebrow.

"What.. happened, exactly?"

Rip the plaster off fast.

"I.. made a statue, in the desert."

Artemis isn't buying it.

"And that took all of your ring power?"

"Well,-"

"He made a giantnakedstatue. Of himself."

I cringe. Jaws drop around the room. Oh, just tell them.

"First, I made a life size statue out of glass I transmuted from the sand, but I didn't think it wouldlastlong enough. So I broke it up, and made a bigger one out of transmuted diamond."

They're all staring except M'gann, who's progressed from giggling to chuckling.

"I tried to get him to add trunks, but he wouldn't listen. I hadn't met anyone else apart from Superboy, so I couldn't justleavehim. I didn't know where to look."

Wallace recovers fastest.

"You mean there's a giant diamond statue of-"

M'gann waves her right hand.

"No."

She's gasping for breath now.

"He wasn't happy with it, so he broke it down and made another one, even bigger."

I wince.

"The third statue is made out of a super dense silicon based compound. It's about half a mile tall and the base goes about a mile underground, so there's no way anyone can remove it. Shaping and transmuting the material took most of the ring's power."

No one wants to be first to speak. After about a minute passes, Kaldur raises the question.

"This statue. It is still there?"

I close my eyes, and rub my brow with my right hand. I remember scanning every database in the world for the molecular structure I wanted; hard, tough and transparent. It seemed so sensible at the time.

"Almost certainly. I mean, it's not indestructible, but it's not far off."

That finally breaks Artemis' self control.

"You made a giant naked statue of yourself in the middle of Bialya!?"

"Not.. not the middle, no."

M'gann snorts. Artemis gesticulates.

"You'reunbelievable!"

"I thought I was dreaming!"

She crosses her arms, and stops looking at me. Robin chuckles too.

"Can't wait 'till Batman hears about that."

"Ihad an excuse. Why exactly did you think it was a good idea to run off before our attack on the Bialyan encampment?"

"That went okay."

"It would have gone better if you'd coordinated with us."

"You mean coordinated withyou."

"In that situation? Yes."

He leans back in his chair and folds his arms. I look out the front window again. We're over the ocean now, and I think I can see the lights of the Turkish coastline.

If we're going to have to deal with the New Gods, I'm going to need to try and track down Scott Free and Big Barda. If they exist here. I wonder how well Diana will get on with her? She was making noises about wanting more female League members, I've just had trouble remembering any who would be worth while. I seem to remember Barda and Scott not being keen on the whole superhero thing. Something about wanting a normal life? Good luck withthat. I'm also going to need to sit down with M'gann and create a telepathic defence construct. I've been thinking about it for a while, but other stuff's just come up…

Anyway. Everyone's alright, and we got the intelligence Batman wanted. Con, we failed the stealth partagain, and I left a giant statue…

Maybe he'll see the funny side?

Wallace jerks in his seat.

"Auw! I just realised; I didn't get anything for the trophy room!"

Teekl uncoils from M'gann's lap, jumps to the floor and walks over to Wallace. She sits, makes eye contact, and then drops something at his feet from her mouth. He looks at it.

"Is.. that a finger?"

I grin at him.

"She likes you!"

**Alternative:**

3rd September

23:12:08 GMT 3

Nine seconds.

Ten seconds.

Iscanthe area again. The Bialyan encampment is still exactly as it was. The drones I detected being launched from airbase the outside Rutba are still en route, on the exact same vector as last time I checked.

I can't help but feel I'm being underutilised here. Batman explained that power ring scans aren't admissible as evidence, but why would this ever come to court?

"Oh El was right! The site's lousy with zeta beam radiation."

And that's a surprise why, Wallace? He and Richard are fiddling with the sensor array. Kaldur's managing to find a way to stand around dynamically, and Kon's watching Richard and Wallace. I'm trying to look alert, but in the dark my grey skin means that I look like a pair of glowing orange eyes floating in the air. Artemis is standing at a slouch close to me, arms crossed.

"Definitely detecting non-terrestrial trace elements from the tent."

I'd already identified the alien sphere, and the probable entry site for whatever form of teleportation was utilised. I could easily tell that it wasn't a zeta beam; for a start, there's no receiver station. Not sure what itwas, though. I don't have any records of similar radiation patterns. Most vexing.

M'gann steps forward.

"I'll check it out in camouflage mode."

"Good idea. Go."

Kon looks around.

"Careful."

Kaldur nods.

"And maintain telepathic contact."

"I will, Aqualad."

I roll my eyes.

"Might I humbly suggest that telepathic communication in close proximity to an individual like Doctor Jones is perhaps not the best course of action?"

Kaldur looks at M'gann, who thinks about it.

"It..shouldbe alright. Intercepting focused telepathic transmissions is pretty difficult."

Kaldur makes eye contact with her.

"If you are sure."

M'gann nods, and camouflages as she rises into the sky. My OrangeVision means that I can see her just fine as she flies directly into the Bialyan encampment. That isn't clever, but it shouldn't matter. Nothing in there is sophisticated enough to detect her.

What exactly are we going to learn from this? I check the watch on my bracer again. Artemis notices.

"What's the matter? You got a hot date lined up?"

"Yes, actually."

She curls her lip.

"I guess the people of Aichi will just have to do without."

Once she got over the initial shock, she'd assumed that I was joking about that. She's learned better since.

"No. The plan this evening is to have dinner with a single woman. Conversation, personal and professional. Little more than that."

She looks at me, frowning, puzzled. I shrug.

"I am a man of many divergent drives. I don't always want the same thing."

"Who is she?"

"Your sister, actually."

Shesplutters. Hm. I'm pretty sure that qualifies me for 'token evil team mate' status. I've certainly got the look down pat.

"What!"

Kaldur looks over.

"Artemis, lower your voice."

I can see her fuming. Delicious. And none of the others even knew that shehasa sister.

"We met quite by chance, hit it off. Exchanged contact information. I find Jade to be a mostinterestingyoung woman."

The Sensei actually believed her. Certainly, what I advised her to say was completely true, but I was expecting more suspicion considering the circumstances. Better yet, Ra's has ordered her to gain my trust and gather information about me. I haven't told her that I'm bugging Infinity Island -that name, seriously-, and she hasn't yet told me that this is anything other than a social engagement. It's all getting delightfully convoluted. And it certainly doesn't hurt that I do find her quite attractive.

I'm in.*

M'gann's arrived, then.

Good, but tread carefully. Camouflageis notinvisible.*

Apparently Kaldur can exchange images with M'gann like this, but I haven't learned how to do that yet. Maybe I shouldn't. I'm not keen on the others seeing some of the things I've been doing, and I don't want to risk seepage. That was why -despite the obvious accessibility advantages- I couldn't risk getting M'gann to tutor me in telepathic defences. Fortunately,Mister Blacklacks her squeamishness, and was more than happy to educate me in her stead. He's still working for the British government at this point in his life, and appears to find it mostly fulfilling. When we met, he made a half-hearted attempt to recruit me, but it was clear that he didn't believe his own Queen-and-Country spiel and he admitted as much afterwards. I was surprised by how amiable he was. Maybe the beer was helping.

They're doing something to the sphere. It's alive! Inpain! Hello? Can you hear me?*

Did she just open broadcast..?

Ican.And an open mind is a dangerous thing.*

MindShield

The other members of the team are looking increasingly agitated. Unfortunately for them, I haven't worked out a way to use this form of construct on others yet. I'm not completely sure what will happen now, but I predictnosebleedsin M'gann's future.

She might need me to recover her. Batman won't like us failing the stealth aspectagain, but I suspect that he'd like her getting dissected even less.

Ring,plot routeto M'gann and mark targets.

By your command.

Then I feel it, a pressure against my shield. Mister Black told me that unfocused attacks like this were fairly easy to turn aside, but this is the first time I've tried my shield in combat and I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't a little concerned.

But no. The pressure is constant, but even as my team mates cry out in pain and double over clutching their heads I am unaffected. And here I thought Mister Black might just have been winding me up. Kon is the first to collapse, as the others groan and stagger aimlessly around. I walk over and put a hand on his shoulder, only for him to swipe me away. I pull back as he crouches and leaps into the sky. I'm a little stronger than Kaldur now, but Kon still overpowers me to a noticeable degree. Looking up into the sky I see M'gann shooting away from the science tent in a similar state of distress.

Hm.

What to do next? From the looks of things my team mates just got hit with a compulsion or a pain stimulation effect. Unlike how I thought things like that would work, Mister Black assured me that once the telepath puts them 'on', they don't require maintenance at all. Doctor Jones probably isn't continuing to do anything to them, so just killing him wouldn't really help. I'm not sure if he'd keep his abilities after assimilation, so that's not a certainty either.

I raise my right fist to my lips.

So what, then?Ah, yes.

"Ring.Heart Stilling Diminution Presence."

3rd September

23:16 GMT 3

I walk slowly towards the Bialyan encampment, making no effort to conceal myself. Quite the contrary, with my shield turned up and my MindShield active I'm lit up like a bonfire.

I was met by a group of guard outside the rim of the pit in which the base is being set up. I smiled pleasantly as they raised their weapons, and watched with interest as they collapsed. Their aggression triggered my ring to work its electromagnetic sufficiently-advanced-magic and slow their heart rates to below the level needed for them to remain conscious. A couple of them kept it together well enough to get shots off, but they're just using automatic rifles. Nothing that's actually a threat to me, and the shots will be heard from within the base, which will most likely work to my favour.

I broke their guns into pieces with my hands andneutralisedthe explosives in their grenades. Even if they aren't a threat to me I don't want them getting up and stumbling across my disorientated team mates with their weapons in working order. My understanding is that an attack my friends can see coming willprobablysnap them out of it -for a while at least- but a few bullets from outside their line of sight could see me returning to a very empty cave tomorrow.

Now I'm walking at an easy pace over the rim of the pit in which the Bialyans have set up shop. Guards shout, point, muster, and then collapse. This isn't the most efficient use of power I've ever made: it doesn't cause immediate unconsciousness and will probably end up using about ten percent of my total charge. It's certainly funny, though. These are the elite of the Bialyan military, but to me? They're insects.

Machine guns rounds spend themselves against my conjured armour as one of the military Jeeps opens fire from outside the effect of the Presence. Ilookin his direction and the effect takes hold, causing the gunner to fall from his perch.

And the best thing about this? None of them will be seriously hurt. And since none of them are getting a good look at me, the best description they'll be able to provide is 'big orange thing'. Now,where's Doctor Jones got to? Still in the main tent, with five scientists and four guards. No one I particularly care about. I think that they're assuming that the lack of fire means that the attack has been beaten off.

Ring, take copies of all electronic and paper records.

By your command.

I slow to strolling pace. If my clothing had pockets, I'd put my hands in them. None of these soldiers will know what method was employed to neutralise them when they wake up. They saw me, then nothing. I find thatimmensely satisfying.

Reaching the main tent, I take a moment toturn offthe Presence. M'gann said something about the sphere being alive, so I should probably investigate in person. Besides, I haven't beaten anything into pulp since Klarion's cat, and it didn't put up much of a fight. I mean, if you're going to have one thing anchoring you to the material world you should at least make sure that it can survive being stamped on.

I calmly push the tent flap aside and walk inside.

"Have you found-"

Doctor Jones turns as he speaks, then cuts himself off as he sees me. He's wearing some sort of cloak and with the hood down I can clearly see through the transparent top of his head and into his metahuman brain. Iscanit, and can clearly identify the novel elements which grant his abilities. Mister Black's useful abnormalities were far better integrated, this looks like a cut and shut job by comparison.

"Oh."

As the soldiers get over their shock and raise their weapons, I raise my right hand and lazily projectShockCrownsinto existence around their heads. Doctor Jones backs up as I give the panicking scientists the same treatment. He isn't scared, just cautious.

"I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised that at least one of you had the sense to disconnect. No matter."

He raises his right hand toward me, fingers splayed.

"Be. Still."

Shield to full.

I feel the pressure again, but he can't breach me. Mister Black took an indecent degree of pleasure in teaching meexactlyhow much force my MindShield can take at this juncture, and it looks like Doctor Jones' peak output is significantly lower than his. But there's no sense taking unnecessary chances.

IFTLto just in front of him. He barely comes up to my chest, and my sudden breach of his personal space causes him to jump back and trip. I catch his shirt in my left hand, pull him towards me and then take hold of his cranium with my right and raise him to my eye level.

"Was that supposed to be a telepathic attack? I've felt better.Pithing Needle."

He jerks as the construct locks his body in place.

If the sphere is alive, I suppose the next order of business is freeing it. Islicethrough the containment unit andpullaway the remains. The unveiled sphere within somehow swivels on his axis until a small non-metallic area is… looking..? At me. It's a slightly recessed circular patch of dark red, and has a lighted red line on it that resembles a slightly stretched omega. There are other, smaller lines and patches of purple. It looks a bit like a Mother Box, a conclusion it confirms a moment later when it starts pinging and beeping at me. I don't get a translation, but… IthinkI can understand it. Ah.

"I agree. Idolook a little likeHim, don't I? But I assure you, sphere of New Genesis, I am no servant of the anti-life, nor of the Tyrant God."

Three beeps, and it rolls backwards a little before rolling forward off the remains of the podium on which it was being held. It comes toward me, and stops about two metres away, growling like a revving engine.

"I doubt that they had anything to do withthat, and I'm afraid that I'm not in a position to arrest them. Would you accept an offer of sanctuary, at least until we can make contact with your homeworld?"

A slightly more positive warbling chirp. I don't want to try sending it the location of the bioship without a better understanding of it's nature, but leading it there should be no chore.

"That… That thing is the property of the Bialyan government. You have no business interfering!"

I turn back to Doctor Jones, still dangling by his head.

"I'm a little impressed you can still talk. But you're wrong; interstellar kidnapping is a crime which a Lantern is fully empowered to investigate. And New Gods are rather forward thinking on the subject of AI rights."

Now… What to do with Doctor Jones?

An idea begins to form. Sure, I can't get away withkillinghim, but, well, I remember how Superman dealt with Mister Black, don't I?

"But leaving legal niceties aside. Doctor Jones, I will show you that there is nothing you can possess which I cannot take away."

The hand holding his headglows orangeas I focus ultrasound scalpels on the graft points inside his head.

"No! What are you doing?!"

Ismile, andincreasethe glow of my eyes.

Agh fuck! I forgot he's a telekine! I can feel it as the meat is twisted and torn and fractures form along the bones in the arm holding him up. I nearly drop him beforereinforcingthe arm's structures with the orange light.

"That'sit? That's yourlast ditch defence?"

His records show that hecando more than this. I can only assume that not being able to move is impeding him. It isn't for show; with only the mechanisms of the Human brain to work with most telekines I've been able to studyneedto map certain activities onto their peripheral nervous system.

"Ghrgh!"

And then the ripping force is gone. Irestoremy arm andcheck. The surgery is complete. Iremovethe Pithing Needle, and open my right hand. He falls onto his arse, and I turn away.

"Come Sphere, we have team mates to round up."

"I ca… You…"

I smile, as behind me his eyes widen and he grasps his head with both hands.

"Auauauauauuauauauauauauauauauauaaua…"

Delicious.

**Normal story:**

Tracers

5th September

09:54 GMT -4

Wallace looks uneasy at the furry objects in the basket.

"This doesn't feel very scientific."

I sigh, and lower the bat.

"It's not. I already know that the Danner Formula worked on them just fine. But yesterday I had to explain to Batman why I decided to build a giant naked statue of myself in the middle of an enemy country. Ineedthis."

We're standing in the training area. The female rats which I treated with the Danner Formula had their litters while we were on the Bialya mission, and their offspring showed superrodent strength and fortitude from birth. Taking a bit of a risk, I commanded the ring to replicate the physiological alterations upon their mothers. They were already suffering from suckling their Dawn-Rat offspring, and leaving them in that situation seemed unnecessarily cruel.

It worked.

Wanting to check a wider variety, I look a random selection of other rats and upgraded them as well.

Now, we're going to play rat baseball.

"Remember, don't put your hand anywhere near their mouths."

Wallace looks at me, then back to the basket. I raise the bat, and take a stance.

His hand moves.

"Recognised, Troia, Ay zero five."

What?

"Hey guys, what are you do-?"

I turn to the zeta tube as the rat flies past me and hits the wall. Edgar McScurry drops to the floor, and we all watch as he rights himself, sniffs the air and then scurries along the floor. My grip on the bat relaxes.

"And.. why were you going to hit that rat with a baseball bat?"

I make the appeal gesture.

"Because the shop didn't have a cricket bat. Bloody Americans."

She's wearing her black star-studded armour and mithril bracers. Finding out that mithril exists here was a bit of a surprise. Finding out that Diana's gold armour is actually made of orichalcum was even more so. I'd thought that White Wolf made that stuff up for Exalted. But no: take a normal -if highly refined- metal, add a little magic and boom, super tough armour. I've got to add that to Sephtian's slate.

Before Edgar can reach the exit and give Teekl evenmorecause to shun my company, Igrabhis tail with a orange tentacle, lift him into the air andShockCrownhim before he can break free. I was a little alarmed to discover that these rats are now strong enough to break my weaker constructs, but I suppose that was sort of the point of the process. I float him over to the basket. Strong though they are, it doesn't seem to occur to them that theycanget through a solid looking obstruction.

"Paul…"

Wow. That's exactly the tone Diana uses.

"Short version: Alan gave me a copy of the formula that gave Hugo Danner super strength. I tested it on some rats, it worked. The bat wouldn't have hurt him."

"You made.. super rats?"

She looks more disturbed than impressed.

"Yes!"

I raise my right fist in exaltation.

"NOW THE WORLD WILLTREMBLEINFEARBEFORE MY RODENT MINIONS!"

Donna and Wallace blink at me. Wallace waves a finger.

"Ah, I'm not gunna help you with that."

"Was a joke, guys. Anyway, works on rats. Had a super strong Blue Jay flying around for a while. Not..sure.. where that went. Monkey trials struck me as areallybad idea."

I pause, waiting for a response. Donna appears to decide that it's her turn.

"So you can make super strong animals? Is that.. good?"

"The Danner Formula normally only works on foetuses. I now know how to make it work on adult organisms. I can make any baseline Human as strong as Hugo Danner was."

"Alright, but what do you need me for? I'm skipping Chemistry revision to be here."

"Eh, Wallace can help you with that."

Wallace grins at her.

"I'm, like, the king of chemistry. I cantotallyhelp you with that."

"Your name's really Wallace?"

He slumps slightly. Whoops.

"Yeah."

"Well, thank you, Wallace. That's very kind of you."

And he's fine again. I hold up my left forefinger.

"Ah. Just a moment…"

Kon, Kaldur and M'gann walk in from the habitation area, with the sphere rolling along just behind them.

Tingle tingle.

M'gann's carrying Teekl, who turns her head to peer around the room. After her telepathic confrontation with Doctor Jones and my creation of offensively strong food animals, Teekl's been spending most of her time with M'gann.

"Okay, Kon, do you want the good news first, or the bad news?"

"Ah."

He looks at M'gann and Kaldur, then back to me.

"Bad.. news?"

"Right,oh-kay."

Ifloatup into the air. Sooo good to have a full charge again.

"After our encounter with Mister Twister, you made it clear to me that you.. were unhappy, not having the full range of Kryptonian powers. I've been working on the issue."

I raise my hands, andformtwo images.

"Eye on the left is yours. Eye on the right, Kal-El's."

I trigger azoomto various points of interest.

"As you can see, near enough identical. Your ability to perceive different wavelengths is almost exactly as good as his, as is your magnifications. But."

The imagepulls outandextendsinto the brain.

"Your visual cortex, his visual cortex. As you can see, noticeable differences in structure."

I point with my right hand.

"This bithere, as far as I can tell, is the capacitor for his heat vision. You don't have one. Your visual cortex is almost entirely Human. So, bad news, I'm sorry, but unless I changed the structure of your brain -which Iwon't, by the way- there's no way to give you heat vision."

He looks down, slumped, and nods.

"I'm still working on flight. Now, good news. I've found a way to upgrade your strength."

His head comes straight up.

"Really?"

I move my arms out to the side.

"No, I'm winding you up."

His face falls.

"No no no, that was a joke! That was a joke. I've done it, with a little help from Wallace, Alan and a guy named Abednego Danner."

The eye images are replaced by a cut awaydiagramof Kon's body, with Kryptonian, Human and Chimeric components in different tones.

"See, originally, I was trying to see if I could get your Human components to have the same strong nuclear force control as your Kryptonian parts. Couldn't do it. But, it occurred to me, I'd be better off studying existing metahumans, and seeing if I could replicatetheirabilities."

Ifloatover to him, touching down a metre away.

"And with the Danner Formula, I have a way to upgrade your Human components. Can't promise that you'll be exactly as strong as Superman, but you'll probably be close."

He's smiling.

"And that's why Donna's wearing her armour. You spar today, she'll need it."

I extend my hands forward, towards his chest.

"So, you want me to do this?"

He looks a little stunned, in a happy sort of way. He nods.

"Yes."

Good day, good day.

7th September

06:46 GMT -2

…

Balls.

When Kaldur invited Kon, M'gann and I to visit Atlantis with him I was so looking forward to getting a tour of the place from someone who actually knows it. Being told what the structures of the buildings of Shayeris actuallyaremeans that I can appreciate it better than just tagging it all as 'alien weirdness to be ignored'. Really, the whole place is a wonder of expert biomancy, natural structures grown many times their natural speed in accordance with the magics of their crafters. Met Kaldur's parents, met his school friends -including the guy I wasexpectingto be Aqualad- and generally ended up with a much better understanding of Atlantian society than I had before.

Sure, I accidentally said a few things that I maybe shouldn't have done. Once they said that there was a 'Purist' movement which hates all Atlantians who deviate from the Human physical template, maybe I should have thought a bit more about asking why they didn't just fix the spells which created the alterations. After backtracking a bit -and healing the scars they carved into Topo's chest - it was explained to me that the version of the spell that was used on the 'purebloods' was lost when the great sorcerer Ahri'ahn died just after the Sinking. Why there wasn't some sort of record made I'm not sure, but I got the impression that while they gotsomewarning that the Sinking was going to happen, it wasn't all that much and things were a bit chaotic. Anyway, at this point turning one of the 'altered' Atlantians back into a baseline Human would be next to impossible, even if it were politically acceptable to try. The bloodline magics are just too embedded.

Like I'd acceptthatfor an answer. I ended up giving this whole speech about how nothing is impossible if you want it strongly enough. Any spell that was cast once can be rediscovered and cast again. I used tohatepublic speaking like that, but I think it actually went quite well. Particularly when I brought up the fact that I don't have a soul, which around here marks me out as the ultimate outsider, unable to perform magic in a civilisation where everything is magic based.

Apparently, the Atlantian term for someone like me is 'Hollow Man', which I suppose makes a kind of sense. I asked, and apparently people without soulscanexist, a sorry state of affairs for those concerned that can be the result of major spell miscasts. The longest any of them are recorded as having survived afterwards is five days, and it's usually less. Until they died they behaved a bit like the zombies from African folklore before Hollywood got to them, listless and bewildered but still biologically alive. They also feature rather heavily in Atlantian horror stories, sort of a halfway house between a zombie and a vampire.Thatversion can sustain itself by feeding on the souls of others, gradually diminishing in power and becoming increasingly corpselike when prevented from doing so. I was actually a bit worried that I might be some sort of Atlantian equivalent of Edward Cullen. Seems a bit trivial, given what happened afterwards.

For some reason, DNA scans on the altered Atlantians tell me that theyshouldbe baseline Humans. Even the scans of the DNA on the bits which clearlyaren'tHuman. The ring detects that the altered bits are altered; it can scan their structures just fine, it just can't explainwhy. I'd find someone to ask, but I don't think that Atlantians know much more about DNA than geneticists knows about biomancy. Not sure we'd be able to get the Purists on side with a re-enchanting plan. It's not like the Nazis let Jews off if they renounced their faith. But the Inquisition did, so, maybe.

Anyway, everything was going fine until we turned in. M'gann and Kon joined Kaldur in the palace's guest facilities while I returned to the bioship. I'm not ready to trust the ring to breathe for me underwater while I'm asleep. As a result, I managed to sleep through Queen Mera getting kidnapped by Ocean Master, and my friends getting blasted by lightning. M'gann's pain woke me up, but with Kaldur down and Prince Orm 'busy' no one would tell me what was going on.

I don't really remember Orm from anywhere but the episode of Justice League where he tried to use a confrontation with some American submarines to start a war and take over Atlantis. Kind of a big deal, but I didn't want to assume things would go the same here. He wanted to send us after a Purist stronghold in something called 'Old Roman Trench' which he'd heard about from 'sources'. I waited until we were away from the palace before suggesting that it would make more sense for me to scan for her DNA instead. Kaldur wanted to tell Prince Orm, but I suggested that we couldn't tell who among his staff could be trusted.

Funnily enough, she wasn't at either location Prince Orm marked as possible Purist strongholds. Took us half an hour to reach the S'Atiroman Cave where she was actually being held. We blitzed the handful of Purist guards, and confronted Ocean Master himself. My ward paid for itself when he tried to blast me, and I disarmed him.

Literally.

Okay, not exactlyliterally, but he doesn't have hands anymore. Why he left them unarmoured I don't know. His armour was heavily enchanted, and my first attack against him completely failed because of that. Kon tried to close the range, Kaldur went to free Queen Mera, and M'gann tried a 'Get Over Here' with her telekenesis. Then I saw his trident, and disarmed him by…

Yeah.

Then Kon grabbed him, broke his arms and caved in his chest. Orm's still alive, just about, but the medical mages are actually arguing about whether it would be kinder just to let him die. They still stick people on Traitor's Reef for High Treason here.

What a mess.

I'm sitting in some sort of drawing room in the palace with my head on my hands, trying not to draw attention to myself. King Orin's back, and somewhere in the palace he's just now finding out that his beloved half brother is also his greatest enemy. Kaldur's been pretty stoical about the whole thing, but I saw how shocked he was when we took Orm's helmet off. I checked Queen Mera over on-site, and neither she nor her unborn child -a boy, though Atlantians don't practise agnatic primogeniture- seem to have suffered any harm. She said that we'd probably arrived before Orm could carry out whatever ritual he'd had planned. They've got a team of magewrights going over the whole thing, trying to work out what his spell rig was supposed to do.

What I can't work out is, why didn't he just kill her? I mean, he must have known she was pregnant, why not make sure that she wasn't going to be a problem as soon as she was out of sight of the palace? If he really needed a death to fuel the spell, why didn't he just get his followers to abduct a couple of 'impure' Atlantians? Can't believe it would be that hard in a place where they can just grab a guy off the street and cut letters into his chest without an utterly devastating police response.

The door opens, and Kaldur swims in. I straighten up and make a dejected wave.

"How's King Orin doing?"

He approaches, his eyes downcast.

"As well as could be expected, given the circumstances."

"Bet the Purists are going to love this, their greatest champion taken down by two aliens, a Hollow Man and a, well…"

I point at my neck, wiggling my index finger up and down. Kaldur lightly shakes his head.

"Though Purist sympathies are hardly uncommon, Ocean Master himself is reviled throughout Atlantis. Any Purist group with him as it's leader will swiftly find itself with very few friends. "

"That's.. something, I suppose."

"I… I had not wanted you to see my home like this."

He takes a seat one along from me.

"I had thought that when Ocean Master was finally defeated it would be at the hands of my king, and that it would be a day of great celebration. Now…"

"Yeah."

We sit in silence for a moment.

"What did.. Prince Orm, actually do in Atlantian government?"

"He served as King Orin's regent during his frequent absences on the surface. I think… I think that the League will have to manage without Aquaman for a time."

"Are the guards going through Orm's quarters?"

He shakes his head.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Who could be trusted to undertake such a search? Prin-.Ormhandled many appointments to the royal household, and as Ocean Master must have had help from inside the palace to capture Queen Mera. They are all under suspicion."

"Damn."

"My king said that he intends to ask the city of Nanauve to provide a replacement detail until the investigation is complete. Since virtually their entire population would be considered 'impure' by the Purists. such groups have never had any support among them."

Shark people. Wonderful. Makes sense though. I was a bit puzzled as to why their king was attending the Conservatory, but apparently they use a system like that of ancient Sparta, and have two kings at a time. King Nanaue Sha'ark is the younger of their current rulers, and they judged it worthwhile to send him to an institution as prestigious as the Conservatory of Sorcery in order to strengthen their city-state's bonds to the next generation of the Poseidonian elite.

And if he wasn't such a huge arse, it might have worked.

"Where've Kon and M'gann got to?"

"They left on the bioship half an hour ago. We did not know where you were."

"Oh. I um.. I thought I should stick around in case anyone wanted me for anything. Didn't want to get in the way, so I thought.. this.. was…"

That wasn't very clever of me. I didn't know what to do, so I removed myself from the situation. But I should have stayed visible. And leaving Kon and M'gann…

"You should join them. There is a zeta beam station in the city. I will lead you there."

"Yeah. Thanks."

We get up.

"After all, you have school today as well."

…

"Wait, what?"

7th September

06:01 GMT -4

"No no no no no no no no no no no."

Diana stands there, waiting for me to stop.

"Paul."

"No! This is not happening."

We're in the living area. Behind us, M'gann is making lunch for Kon and herself.Notfor me, I put a stop tothatright away. I have no idea what's going on, but I know what'snotgoing on: me, going to an American high school. Kon needs the socialisation practise, fine. He doesn't need the knowledge, as since I upgraded his physique he finally agreed to let M'gann try meshing his programming with his conscious mind. It's working, slowly. It's even safe to let him into the kitchen now, though he hasn't got much beyond toast yet. M'gannwantsto go to school, fine. She could probably use the Earth culture practise. I'mtwenty nine, for heaven's sake!

Teekl's washing her front right paw while sitting on the work surface. Kaldur's staying behind in Atlantis for the time being, Red Tornado's gone to see what Kon's up to, and an uncomfortable looking Mister J'onzz has retreated to the far side of the kitchen. M'gann's looking a little nervous as well. Used to be that I'd hate making a scene like this. But, damn it, some things must not stand.

"Paul, I already told you that this was-"

"I thought you were talking to Kon and M'gann!"

She's right, though. School had come up in conversation. I just didn't credit the idea she meant me. My knowledge gap isn't that bad. Wait, I dimly remember that holding people back is more common in the American education system than it is in Britain. I haven't done anything really stupid lately, have I?

"I'm not even a US citizen!"

"Actually, you are. The League has arranged public identities for each of you. You just need to select a name which you-"

"Oh gods it's happened, hasn't it? I've caught it from you people. I'm going to start saying 'mailbox' and 'aloominum' and thinking that footballs are supposed to be ovoid and drinking tea withicein it. I don't even like tea!"

"Paul, calm down."

"No.No. This is not the time for-"

"Paul, direct order. Calm down."

I freeze, trying to breath more slowly.

"I should have asked for something in the oath about impossible requests. Look, I find it strange enough that you're okay with M'gann going to school at forty eight, but what exactly do you think-"

"Um. Actually…"

We both look at Mister J'onzz. He hesitates for a moment before continuing.

"M'gann may be forty eight Earth years old, but Martians mature much more slowly than Humans. In your terms, she would be equivalent to a sophomore student."

I look blank.

"And in British?"

"Sixteen. That would be.. year eleven, I think, in the British system."

Aaaagh!

This actuallyisthe Junior Justice League! Everyone's… It's not just training. Not just training. That means.. everyone…

What?

"Exactly how old do you think I am?"

What do I do what do I do?

"Mid teens. I thought it best to put you in the same class as Kon and M'gann. I've no doubt that you can cope with the work load."

She looks at me in an interrogative manner.

"Actually, I hadn't realised until just now that I don't know exactly how old you are."

What do I do what do I do?

!Lie!

"Seventeen. I finished my GCSEs last year, and I have absolutely no desire to go back to secondary school."

Should I feel bad about that? I don't.I can't leave here, this ismyhome, but there's no way I'm going to school if I can possibly avoid it.

"Obviously, I don't have thecertificateswith me, but if you want something to put in the files I can just tell you my final grades."

Diana frowns slightly, and her eyes drop for a second.Progress!

"Students normally don't leave high school until they're eighteen."

"My birthday's on the seventeenth of September. If youreallywant me to go for ten days…"

She's thinking about it.Keep pushing.

"You're not making Kaldur go, and he's younger than me."

That's true.

"Kaldur's Atlantian-"

"And I'm British! Completely different education system, which I've finished."

"Don't you think it might be useful for you to have a genuine qualification?"

"Aaaaaah. No. I can already draw information from all databases on Earth. Once I get in touch with the Controllers, I'll have access to knowledge a billion years more advanced than anything Earth has to offer. I already told you that I don't want a secret identity, so there's no point in developing one. I am a Sector Lantern, and that's a full time job. High school is not worth my time."

Her left hand goes to her chin.

"It would have been helpful to know this in advance."

Eh?

"I told you in July. At the barbecue, with Alan and Donna."

Her eyes move to the side, the skin around them tightening as she tries to remember.

"You said that you 'weren't interested'. You didn't say that you'd finished school."

"Didn't I? Could of sworn…"

Or was that the bit I said to Donna? Now she mentions it, I'm not sure. I shake my head.

"It's splitting hairs anyway."

"The identity already exists…"

"Ring, detect all electronic records the League has created for my shell identity, copy them, then delete the originals."

"Compliance."

"There. Dealt with."

"Paul."

"If you can't list myrealorigin, at least list me as a local British national. Or even Maltusian. Something I'd want to be, something sort of accurate. Don't ask me to lie to everyone like that."

She nods, resigned.

"Very well."

7th September

06:36 GMT -4

"Unable to comply."

"Alright, butwhy?"

I'm back in casuals, and I'm standing in my room in front of my personal lantern. I thought it would be best if I put a little space between Diana and myself for the moment. I need to calm down properly, for a start. Not quite sure how I got away with concealing my true age. Isn't she some sort of truth demigoddess? I had a good look at myself in the mirror when I got in here, and I honestly don't understand how they could think that I'm in my mid teens. Maybe that's because I know what I looked like at that age? Or maybe they're underestimating my age due to the situation's demand characteristics?

Since I need something to do for a little while, I thought I'd have a go at doing what Wallace suggested during the Bialya mission. Gives me an excuse not to think about the chaos in Atlantis as well.

"No superior connection available."

"Expand."

"Connection to Central Power Battery permits increased matrix stability. Do you desire to form a connection to the Orange Central Power Battery?"

"No!"

"Compliance."

"What is increased matrix stability, and why do I need it to put my lantern into subspace?"

"Each personal lantern contains a small planar fracture, systems for stabilising and maintaining the planar fracture, and capacitors for storing power taken from the planar fracture. Simply put, linking the personal lantern to the Central Power Battery fortifies and magnifies all systems. Practical consequences include increasing power draw from the fracture and increased fracture stability."

"So, if I don't connect to the Central Power Battery, and put the lantern into subspace…"

"High probability of fracture evaporation."

"The personal lantern would permanently shut down."

"Affirmative."

Not doingthat, then.

"Does not having a connection create any other problems?"

"Affirmative. Eventual fracture collapse is inevitable. A connection with the Central Power Battery extends personal lantern life expectancy indefinitely."

"Collapse? How soon?"

"Estimated remaining lifespan one hundred ten thousand four hundred ninety five local years."

Fuuw. I can live with that.

"Does this personal lantern have some sort of.. camouflage mode?"

"No. However, this lantern is capable of generating a subspace vacuole to conceal itself."

"I thought you just told me it couldn't do that without shutting down?"

"Ring based storage utilises power ring signature as connection point. This permits storage mobility, but causes fracture instability in unconnected personal lanterns. The lantern's own system retains a small connection to the external world, resulting in lantern immobility while in use."

"How small a connection?"

"Two point one cubic nanometres."

"No risk of collapse?"

"No significant loss of active lifespan predicted. However, this system is much less secure, and can be breached by less advanced subspace manipulation systems."

Abra Kadabra aside… Should be safe, for the most part. Just have to put it somewhere that isn't obvious. Hmm. Haven't yet recharged since that excitement in Atlantis. I hold out the ring.

"Recharge."

Nothing makes the world feel more right than recharging the ring. I feel better about having had the argument with Diana as soon as the orange beam hits. Confidence, that's what it means to me. I'll go and smooth things over with her, then talk to her about Robert? I've been trying to find a good time, but Batman's a pretty busy guy. But first…

I pick up my personal lantern, and hold it over the foot of my bed.

"Lantern,occlude."

The lantern vanishes by degrees. It's almost as if it's turning out of sight, into dimensions I can't perceive. I run ascan, and the ring can still detect it. Hmm.

Kon and M'gann will probably be leaving for school before too long. Does Kon expect me to be joining them? Agh,I need to try and smooth things over there as well.

"Ring,take me to Kon."

My bedroom is replaced by the cavernous pool area. Kon's working on his bike. After the thing with the robot monkeys I spent time learning how to ride my scooter properly, but I took out all of the weird super hero adaptations when I rebuilt it. Kon's taken to working on his manually. I think he finds the focusing therapeutic, plus it helps integrate the mechanical engineering knowledge with which he was programmed.

The sphere is circling him, like a puppy with a ball in its mouth. I need to try and find out roughly how intelligent it is. Are we talking animal? Small child? Adult? Something completely unrelated to Human development? IthinkI've located Scott Free, but approaching him could be a bit tricky.

"Jealous much?"

Kon's looked around to the sphere, in the opposite direction from where I'm standing. The sphere twitters musically. Is it bored? Maybe I could build it some sort of giant marble run?

"No, I'm sure that your heart's big enough for meandthe bike."

His head jerks back around.

"Hey Paul! When'd you get back?"

"About half an hour ago. Look, I'm really sorry about leaving you like that after the fight with Ocean Master. I didn't.. really.. know what to do."

"Uuh, it's okay, but, why didn't you come and find me when you got back?"

I walk over and sit down next to him.

"Had a bit of an argument with Diana. Upshot is, I completed the compulsory part of the British education system over a year ago and won't be joining you at school."

"Oh."

Yep, downcast as predicted.

"Ready for school?"

M'gann flies down the steps which lead from the kitchen area. Diana, Red Tornado and Mister J'onzz are just behind her. Teekl is flying with her. Flying for M'gann? I feel a little betrayed by that.

"I made our lunches!"

Kon and I stand, Kon wiping his hands on a rag. I always had a plastic lunchbox, but it seems that paper bags are de rigueur here. Wouldn't the stuff inside get squashed all the time?

"The first day of the scholastic season carries great cultural resonance."

Not sure what it's like on Mars Mister J'onzz, but I always felt more of a 'ugh, here we are again' myself.

M'gann lands next to Kon, while Teekl lands on the sphere, which responds by growling its engine. Teekl stares down at it for a moment, then dawks it.

"We want to wish you.. both, well."

I make brief eye contact with Diana. She doesn't look particularly annoyed. I jerk my eyes and head in the direction of Kon. She dips her head slightly in acknowledgement, then focuses on Kon.

"Yes. I will be reading your report card at the end of the year, and I expect you to learn as much in the classroom as you do in the training ring."

Kon straightens.

"I will.I won't disappoint you."

7th September

06:42 GMT -4

A slight creak as Red Tornado focuses his attention on M'gann.

"Miss Martian. Do you intend to attend school in your current form?"

M'gann claps her hands, then spreads out her arms and legs.

"Ah! I spent hours choosing this outfit."

The change in her shapeshifting clothing spreads from her feet upward. She ends up with tall white socks, black shoes, a white t-shirt, and dark pink headband, skirt and.. jacket.. thing? The skirt has a narrow black belt with a gold buckle. Or rather, I suppose it probably doesn't, being a shapeshifted replica rather than an actual belt. Maybe? After how embarrassed she got when I asked about it the first time I've not broached the subject again.

"Can M'gann M'orzz pass as an Earth girl now?"

Red Tornado regards her for a moment.

"Unlikely."

"Just kidding!"

In an instant her skin turns from green to pale pink. It's actually quite close to what my colour is these days as I've been getting a good deal more sun that I used to. Kon's still fairly pale. I suppose that his fortitude also protects his skin from ultraviolet damage.

M'gann turns on the spot to show off her new form.

"Meet Megan Morse!"

She curtsies, then turns to Kon.

"What's your new name?"

Kon thinks about it for a moment.

"Ah, you said you liked Conner, right? Why can't I just be Conner El?"

I smile, and lean forward.

"The whole point of having a secret identity is that it's different from your super identity. Kon-El to Conner El is a bit obvious."

Mister J'onzz form ripples as a navy blue suit replaces his black Manhunter uniform.

"I chose the name 'John Jones' for myself, and suggested 'John Smith' for Red Tornado."

Mister J'onzz's Human seeming form is that of a bald black man here. I distinctly remember him being primarily using a white alter ego in the comics. Is that the product of him arriving on Earth decades later, in different social conditions? Or maybe he made a connection between Caucasian Humans and White Martians?

"Perhaps you could use 'Johnson' as your family name?"

I seem to remember the name 'John' meaning something about light in Ca'andran. 'Son of the Light'? That just sounds silly.

Kon looks at Diana. Oh, I see where this is going.

"What's yours?"

She hesitates for a moment.

"Amazons don't tend to use them. Those few Amazons born since the Exile were once called 'the Younger', but that had fallen out of use by the time of my birth. When I joined the All Star Squadron and their paperwork required that I have one I simply gave my mother's name."

Kon crosses his arms.

"Then I'll pass."

Mister J'onzz is not so easily dissuaded.

"Perhaps, Kent?"

He didn't.

He did. I seem to remember using the 'K' word myself in the desert when I first encountered Kon, but I don't think that Kon remembers it. He certainly hasn't asked about it.

M'gann likes it.

"Oh. In memory of Doctor Fate! The late Kent Nelson."

"Uh..of course."

Good save. Mister J'onzz shifts back to his Martian form. Or rather, his sort of Martian form. Now, let's see…

[My arm over his shoulder. I'm grinning.] Smooth sir, very smooth. Why not suggest that he wear glasses, and study journalism?*

His eyes dart to me for a moment. I think. It's a little hard to tell. None of the other's appear to have heard that.

"Okay. Sure. Guess it'd be an honor, or something."

Look like Kon likes it, -well, is prepared to tolerate it- and so he becomes Conner Kent anyway. Is that narrative causality or historical imperative orjust plain weird? I'm trying to keep my amusement from my face.

"Well, ConnerKent, timetochangeyourshirt."

She's actually batting her eyelids. Kon looks down at his 'S', and puts his right hand over it protectively. M'gann pokes him.

"You don't wanna reveal your identity."

Kon reaches up and pulls his t-shirt over his head. M'gann bites her lip as she ogles his broad muscular chest. Honestly. As it comes off Kon turns the t-shirt inside out and holds it out to M'gann, the 'S' now hidden from view.

"Will this work?"

She's blushing.

"Works for me."

Come on M'gann, you've seenhis bare torsobefore.

"Thaaat's not really a disguise. I think people are probably intelligent enough to add an 'S' on their own. Can I lend you a shirt? I'm sure the ring can alter something to your size."

He shrugs.

"Sure."

Imovethe t-shirt into subspace. This gives M'gann an unobstructed view, and she takes full advantage.

!All together!

!All mine!

"Kon, do you have a colour preference? I've got white, blue and orange."

"Not white, and orange is kindayourthing."

"Quite true. Right then,ring, alter one blue shirt to Kon's dimensions."

"Compliance"

Purely coincidentally, the orange scanning beam projects from my eyes. It runs over him once from head to toe before moving back the other way and transposing the shirt onto him. Perfect fit. Probably not a combination of clothes I would have picked out, but I don't think he's ever shown any interest in other clothes. Have to take him shopping some time.

Wow. Did I just mentally volunteer to go clothes shopping with someone?

Kon holds out his arms to get a good look at it. He doesn't seem to be that bothered one way or another, and lowers them. M'gann takes telekinetic hold of the lunch bags, then takes Kon's arm to lead him to the exit. As he passes me he frowns for a moment.

"Wait. Shouldn't I be ConnerNelson?"

7th September

06:47 GMT -4

Mister J'onzz sighs.

"They grow up so fast."

Diana looks at me.

"Yes, they do."

"Look, um, I'm sorry about that. I should have realised that you wouldn't magically know how old I was."

She dismisses the matter with a wave of her left hand.

"Since you're not going to school, what plans do you have for today?"

I fold my arms against my chest.

"I was pretty much just going to laze around, watching TV and smoking marijuana."

No reaction from Red Tornado or Mister J'onzz. Diana raises an eyebrow. Oh well, I tried.

"I'm going to follow up on the Bialya mission. Ithinkthere are couple of people on Earth who come from the same place as the sphere, and I want to talk to them about it. Maybe see if they can take it back."

Diana nods.

"How have they escaped being noticed?"

"TheylookHuman, and one of them is the New God of Freedom. Trapping him, even metaphorically, is pretty much impossible."

Mister J'onzz narrows his eyes slightly.

"Your description of these.. 'New Gods'… It seems a little…"

"I know. That's why I wasn't going to add anything to the Justice League database until I'd been able to confirm it, but-"

I point to the sphere. It warbles. Oh.

"The son of Highfather and his wife, since you ask."

A series of beeps.

"No, hisnaturalson. I said Freedom, not the Glory of War."

Mister J'onzz looks from me to the sphere.

"You were able to understand what the sphere said?"

"Sort of. The ring doesn't turn it into words, but I can generally understand what it means."

Diana looks at Mister J'onzz, then Red Tornado.

"I can understand it as well. Red?"

"No. I have been attempting to decode its sounds since it arrived here with no success. I find it odd that the two of you understand it so easily."

"It's notthatstrange. Metaphysically, Diana's probably a lot like a New God."

I hold out my left hand, palm outward, and do the glowing flame thing Alan does when he flies.

"And the ring is letting me fake it. I know I can't understand it when I'mnotwearing it. Have the Greenies come up with anything useful?"

Diana and Mister J'onzz exchange looks. Oh, come on, by this stage you should be able to do telepathic consultations without looking at each other. Mister J'onzz responds for them.

"They are.. discussing with the Guardians what information can be released."

"Thatsounds about as helpful as I was expecting. I'll write up what IthinkI know later, but don't treat it as guaranteed."

Diana focuses on me for a moment.

"I though you said that your ring doesn't have a database?"

Whoops.

"I.. exaggerated a bit. Doesn't have much of one, and most of what's there isn't very useful, especially as I can't confirm it until my year's up."

Her eyes dart away for a moment when I say 'year'. She doesn't feel bad about that, does she? I still think it's a fair trade.

"Hm. Very well. I will accompany you to meet this 'god of freedom'."

"Ooh. Um. Sir, you understand that they're here to hide from the New God of Tyranny? They're probably not going to be happy about having their cover blown. I was.. kind of planning to keep it to a minimum…"

"Orange Lantern, I have the greatest respect for what you have managed to achieve since receiving your ring, but you are still my student. Diplomatic contacts like this need to be conducted by League members."

"Yes sir."

"If their anonymity is such a concern, we can keep their identities between the two of us."

I nod. I hadn't expected that she'd want to get involved, but it wouldn't hurt to have her support. Now that I think about it, the only combat mission I've actually gone with her on where I was fully participating was dealing with that kraken that was attacking shipping in the Skandage. Not sure why she got called in on that one. Kraken aren't part of Greek mythology, but I suppose when a giant monster is attacking people you can't be too fussy.

Diana takes a step towards the zeta tubes, and I turn to follow her.

"Paul. A moment, if you will."

I wonder what Mister J'onzz wants? I turn back. Diana stops as well, probably as curious as me.

"A moment ago you sent an extremely clear telepathic message to me, and I do not believe anyone else was able to hear it. Diana?"

She shakes her head.

"I didn't hear anything."

"Yeah, M'gann said that I'd taken to telepathy surprisingly easily."

He looks at me for a moment.

"I do not think that you appreciate exactlyhowunusual what you are doing is. When M'gann told me that you were able to induce tactile sensation I was.. sceptical."

Aaaaaaagh.

"Oh, look, it was after our memories got wiped. I already apologised to her about it, she seemed okay and I backed off as soon as…-"

His eyes widen slightly.

"-and you didn't know about that."

I look down, and wrinkle my nose.

"You didn't know about that. Right."

There's a pause. Uuuuooooh.

"You, and M'gann, are both mature young people. I am certain that she would have mentioned it if she found the experience… uncomfortable."

This, actually,doesn'tfeel as awkward as I thought it would. I wonder if that's the ring's doing? I'd still rather not be having this discussion.

"Sir,loveto talk about this some more, but,-"

I point both index fingers at Diana, who now has both eyebrows raised.

"-mission. Is there anything you need to say to me urgently?"

"I.. do not believe so."

"Right! Nice talking to you."

I nod.

"Red Tornado."

I turn around in what I hope is a definitive way and walk towards Diana.

"Come on Teekl, Sphere. Walkies."

7th September

06:52 GMT -4

"Recognised, Wonder Woman, zero three, Orange Lantern , B, zero six, Teekl, C, zero one, Sphere, C, zero two."

The zeta terminus nearest the home of Scott and 'Barbra' Free is in a Wayne Enterprises owned dockside warehouse on the shore of Hartford, Connecticut. Its neighbours areactuallyused for secure storage, so it doesn't look odd that this one has sophisticated security devices on the exterior, as well as armoured sides and anti-scanning insulation. It'sotherform of security comes from the fact that Bruce Wayne basically owns this town, being it's largest employer and having donated generously to several civic projects. I'm not exactly sure what it is they do here, all of the areas other major companies appeared to be insurance providers.

Teekl zips in front of my face as I follow Diana to the exit.

"Teekl number one? Teekl queen?"

"Teekl, that's not how it w-"

And there's a paw on my nose. I can just feel the claws against my skin. Bet Larfleeze never has to put up with this.

"Tell you what, you can be the Sphere's queen."

Her head tilts slightly to the side as she withdraws her paw, and then she flies over to land at Diana's feet. Diana bends down and rubs her head.

"I hadn't appreciated how alive she is."

"I was expecting her to be a bit more obedient as well."

"Was she always able to talk?"

"I didn'thearher speak when she was with Klarion. Teekl? Were you always able to talk?"

Her tail waves back and forth.

"Only Klarion hear."

She stalks off to sniff the corner of the room.

"What does she mean?"

"No sure. Power rings can translate for animals. Maybe Klarion didn't share his ability to understand her?"

"Power rings can translate animal sounds? I hadn't realised that."

"I think it's mostly interpreting gestures. They aren't reallysayingwhat you hear."

She walks over to a computer console, and checks that internal security hasn't been compromised.

Ring, check for listening devices, then secure room.

Compliance.

Diana turns back to me as the walls, floor and ceiling begin to glow orange. She looks around for a moment.

"Very thorough. Now, tell me about the people we're here to meet."

"Sir."

I raise my hands, andcreateconstructs in the shape of our targets.

"Scott and Barbra Free, aka Mister Miracle,-"

His costume was easy to locate, as he wears it on publicly available advertising material. Icreatean additional image next to his normal guise for comparison.

"-and Big Barda."

She's running self defence classes at one of the local gyms. I didn't want to risk scanning their home in case they picked up on it, and as a result I've had to rely on memory for her armour. Tight fitting mail, skirt thing, mega rod and weird helmet. That was about it, wasn't it? Should probably mention it to Diana.

"I don't guarantee that I've got her armour completely correct. I'll give their house a scan when we get there and inform you of any major errors on my part."

Diana walks over to the armoured image. Barda is actually at least a foot taller than her, and noticeably more muscular.

"Impressive."

"Don't get your hopes up. My files suggest that, having donea lotof fighting for Darkseid, she's more interested in a quiet life here rather than getting involved in our line of work."

"What's she the New God of?"

"No idea. Honestly, that dual existence thing might just be for their aristocrats."

The sphere had been heading for the exit, but it's rolled back to the image of Mister Free and is bleeping excitedly.

"She isn't one of their aristocrats?"

"No. Elite warrior, but not properly part of the ruling group. Shewaspart of Darkseid's bodyguard… But I say again, I haven't been able to check a lot of this data yet."

"And her husbandisan aristocrat?"

"Yes, as the son of Highfather, ruler of New Genesis. The 'good guys', if you like. Highfather was a friend of Darkseid's brother, before said brother was assassinated on Darkseid's order."

"He had his own brother killed?"

"His mother, too. Though, to be fair, Queen Heggra was completely horrible."

"It seems to run in the family."

"She trained him in it. Intentionally, I mean. She believed that Apokolips needed the greatest tyrant as its ruler, someone completely ruthless and cruel. I don't know if she was proud of her success or not."

"How did Scott Free and Barda meet?"

"As part of the treaty which ended the last major war between Apokolips and New Genesis, the ruler of both worlds sent their sons as hostages to the other. Darkseid's son Orion was raised by Highfather, while Scott Free was sent to a facility run by the New God of Child Abuse in an attempt to break his will. Didn't work, and eventually he escaped to Earth."

"The New God of… They have agodfor that!?"

Diana is clearly horrified.

"Goddess, actually. Her name is Granny Goodness, and sheispart of the inner circle. Very good at breaking young minds, and then rebuilding them into whatever Darkseid wants. I don't have a picture, but think short fat old woman with a perm. Basically, shoot on sight."

"And Highfather willingly delivered his son into her care?"

I shrug.

"It stopped the war. Maybe he was sure that Scott Free could survive and escape? If he'd stayed on Apokolips, Orion would just have turned into a copy of his father. If he was trying to do the greatest good for the greatest number…"

"Perhaps. But, still. His own son. What is Highfather the New God of?"

"Don't know. If I had to guess, I'd say loving paternal authority. He's basically Zeus without the philandering."

I canfeelher desire to defend her god. Of all peoples, why the heck do the Amazons still revere him? The fact that she doesn't have an immediate comeback suggests to me that that part of the mythology is more or less true. Must remember to look up Cassandra Sandsmark later.

"Leaving that aside for now. How did you plan to approach them?"

"Walk up to their house in my civvies, ring on the doorbell."

I shrug at her raised eyebrows.

"Worked with Alan. I doubt they make a point of answering the door armed. If they'd wanted me to go away, I'd have done so. But, if you're coming, low key isn't really possible. I don't suppose you've got any casual clothing stored around here, have you?"

She walks over to a crate at the side of the room, and touches a panel. It opens, revealing female clothing.

"It may surprise you to learn this, but I do think ahead occasionally."

"Of course sir."

I walk to the far side of the room, look away and put my hands over my eyes.

"I'm just taking my boots off, Paul. The clothing goesovermy armor."

"Er. Right."

"After all, I wouldn't want to make M'gann jealous, would I?"

Oh no, not this time sir.

"You know sir, I haven't actuallytoldanyone that I know you keep at least one change of clothes at Alan's house."

A brief pause. I hear clothing being tugged on.

"When I returned to Themyscira after the Second World War, Alan offered to store some of my belongings until I decided whether I wanted to stay in the United States or not."

"And they're still there sixty years later?"

"Well,-"

"Oh, I believe you sir. I believe you. Thousandswouldn't..."

7th September

06:56 GMT -4

"-on life support, so King Orin is going to be busy for the next few weeks."

Turns out that King Orin didn't tell anyone specifically why he had to return home when he left the Watchtower, and it was far easier to explain what happened than continue to listen to Diana continue to question me about my relationship with M'gann.

"You cut off his hands?"

We're walking down the suburban street that leads to the Free's home. There aren't many people up and about at this time of the morning, but there are a few and I didn't want to transfer us directly to their door in case someone saw. We're still aiming to keep this as quiet as possible.

"Only his hands and feet were unarmoured, and he was pointing an arcane weapon of a type I was unfamiliar with at a bound pregnant woman. I could have reattached them later, but the healers wanted me out of the way. I checked with Kaldur beforehand, and Atlantian rules of engagement allow-"

"I wasn't criticising the level of force you used. I'm more impressed that you picked up his vulnerabilities that quickly rather than repeatedly trying to blast armour you couldn't breach."

"Oh. Thank you."

We walk a little further. Teekl and the sphere are back at the warehouse. Diana is wearing blue jeans, white blouse and a denim jacket. I've got my environmental shield set to minimum. I don't think we stand out significantly.

"Mera's pregnant?"

"Yep. A boy, though I didn't tell her in case she didn't want to know."

"I'll have to send them my congratulations."

And I stop walking, my hands going to my face. Diana stops as well.

"What's wrong?"

"I kept his hands with me when we went back to the palace. I didn't have a bag or anything, so I put them into the ring's subspace pocket. The healers told me to get lost. I've still got them."

"You weren't planning to add them to the trophy room, I hope."

"No! No, gods no."

"Then later today you can go back to Poseidonis and hand them over to the palace doctor."

I peel my hands away from my eyes.

"Sir, was that pun intentional?"

A second of puzzlement.

"I'm speaking Greek. If you heard a pun, it wasn't from me."

She appears to think for a moment.

"You heard me telling you to 'hand them over', didn't you?"

I nod. She smiles as she turns away, and continues down the pavement. I shake my head, and follow her. We stop again at the path leading up to the Free's front door. She nods at me.

"Ring, full scan."

And Iknowthe house's contents. Most of it is the same as its neighbours, escapology equipment aside, but there's a hidden compartment I can't scan. Scott and Barda also give confusing results. On one level, it's reading Human organs and tissues. On another, it's like it's glitching, occasionally getting partial images of something more. They're sitting at the dining room table.

And they've both looked up. Yep, they felt that.

"They're both inside, and they know that someone scanned them. I think they're keeping their specialist equipment in a sealed compartment, but I can't scan it."

"They can block power ring scans?"

"It doesn't surprise me that it's within their technological ability. Imightbe able to brute force it, but that would be a bit aggressive."

She nods.

"Wait here."

I nod, and she walks up the path and rings the doorbell. We wait for a moment, but nothing happens. She notices the spy hole, and moves to stand directly in front of it.

Ring, what are they-

The door explodes outwards, hitting Diana full on and knocking her back onto the path before she uses her flight the steady herself and throws it aside.

"Raaagh!""Just two of them. This won't take long."

Barda charges out, Mega-Rod held in a two handed grip. She's wearing a short purple dressing gown which blows open, revealing red pyjama shorts, a red cut off pyjama top and pink fluffy bunny slippers. The Mega-Rod swings down in an overhead blow and is met by Diana's bracers, raised in a cross. Barda moves back a tiny amount before reversing the butt of the Rod into Diana's face, sending her hurtling backwards past me into the road.

Yeah, they think we've blown their cover. Poop.

And now she's looking at me andarmour armour armour!

My grey armour and orange construct armour appear as she sprints forward. I raise my hands.

"Barda, could we just talk-!"

"Errgh!""Why areyoueven here?"

She swings the Mega-Rod right to left with the intent of smashing me in half. Itransferto just behind her.

"Barda, please try to calm-"

She bends her legs slightly, and hurls herself backwards at me. I instinctively start to duck, before realising that's stupid andtransferringmyself left. She steadies herself and goes into a crouch, ready to attack me again.

Shereally isn't wearing a bra.

Diana torpedoes into her side, grabbing her around the waist. They both go down, grappling. Barda drops the Rod as soon as Diana gets inside her reach. Diana's got that, fine, what now? I look at the doorway and see Mister Free paused there, holding a silver disc in each hand. I don't remember exactly what those do, but I don't think it would be good for us.

Itransferto just in front of him, and raise my hands in surrender.

"Mister Free, we're not here to fight. Please ask your wife to stop hitting Wonder Woman."

He blinks, and lowers the discs slightly.

"That's Wonder Woman?""I told her, don't go charging out, but does she listen?"

"Yes, and-"

Barda flies through the air and hits the side of their house hard enough to break several of the slanted slats of wood which make up the frontage. She rights herself again in a second, spots me, and lunges. I take a step back and feel something press into the rear of my armour construct. What?

Barda's fist slams into the right side of my face, but rather than decapitating me or bouncing off my construct faceplate I spin with my abdomen as the axis. I make a full dizzying rotation head over heels as she fails to arrest her momentum and my head comes back around again just in time to get a face full of New Goddess boob.Thatsends me spinning sideways and into the air before Iflickthe damn enerjam off andsteadymyself. Enerjam, is that what they're called? Not sure.

Diana flies at Barda at head height, pulling Barda's face straight into her knee. As Barda staggers back Ieliminatethe friction from under her feet and she goes down.

7th September

07:00 GMT -4

!Pointless stop stop stop!

She's not going to listen, she needs toseesomething. Sphere! Itransferback to the warehouse. No point worrying about secrecy at this point. A quickscan, and then anothertransferto the place the sphere and Teekl wandered off to. Fortunately, they only went as far as the seafront, and I don't think anyone's seen them. I materialise, stick a hand on each one,extendmy environmental shield and thentransferback to the Free's front lawn.

The sphere starts warbling happily as soon as it sees them. Mister Free and Barda look around in surprise, and Diana takes advantage of the opening to lunge up and toward her, bring her fist down on the top of her head and driving her to the ground hard.

!No wrong no!

Amechanical clawconstruct grabs Diana and pulls her back and the sphere rolls up to Mister Free and beeps loudly.

"Sorry about that sir, but we need to deescalate."

Mister Free kneels and places his right hand on the sphere.

"I can understand it.""It's the same technology as Mother Box, but I don't recognise the configuration."

How else to help?

Iwavemy right hand and the front panels of the house fuse back together. Igesturewith my right palm and the door floats over to the doorway and reattaches, unbroken and unbent. Iturnand the lawn levels out. Then I take a deep breath and float over to land next to Barda.

"Can I offer you a hand up?"

She glares at me, scowling. I give up on smiling and justlifther to her feet instead. Once she's upright she tries swatting the construct away, but I let it dissipate first.

"Sir? Mister and Missus Free? Might I suggest that we move this off the street?"

Mister Scott looks each way down the road and tightens the muscles in the corners of his eyes, as if tasting something unpleasant.

"I think it's a bit late for that.""Oh, not again."

We all turn and take in the rest of the street. There aren't as many rubberneckers as there would be inside a city but I'd say that with all the neighbours looking on in horror -through windows for the closer ones, out on the street if they're further away- we've lost plausible deniability.

Or maybe we just need to lie bigger.

Itakea video camera out of subspace and raise it to my eye, panning it around without turning it on.

"And that's a wrap! We can go again if you want Missus Free, but don't think we'll get it any better with another take!

I lower the camera.

"It's a good job Mister Free knows so much about explosives! That would never have worked so well without the special effects!"

Stares of utter disbelief from Diana and Barda. I think that Mister Free is trying not to laugh.

"We can work out how you want it cut now if you like! I can plug this right into your computer,inside!"

The grin is back, and I'm nodding my head vigorously in the direction of the now restored door.

Diana takes a few paces towards me.

"Orange Lantern, no one's going to believe that."

"They will if there's no official follow up, so when we get inside you'll need to phone the police. Also, you might need to turn up at one of Missus Free's self defence classes."

Barda is now squinting at me with her left eye.

"I didn't know that Earth had a God of Bullshit.""Scott, could that work? I don't want to move again either."

Mister Free steps away from the door as if to invite us in.

"That might work, if we get off the streetnow.""New York was totally your fault. You know that, right?"

Camera held out in such a way that it would be obvious to onlookers, I walk into their home. Barda's following closely behind me, having paused to pick up her Mega-Rod.

"I'll put the coffee on.""It said five items or less!"

Their table is still set for breakfast. There's some carbonised bacon on the plate in front of the seat Mister Free walks past me to occupy, next to a bowl that holds the residue of some sort of cereal. The sphere takes up station next to him as I come to a halt in front of the table. Barda strides past into the kitchen area, Teekl rubs against my left leg and Diana closes the door as she brings up the rear. The other plate on the table holds some half eaten toast. The toast is plain.

I meet Mister Free's eyes as he passes Diana the phone.

"Wemighthave got away with it."

I hope we have, anyway. Diana takes the phone, then walks into the living room to attempt to dissuade the police from bombing the place.

Mister Free pats the sphere, which responds by doing athereminimpression.

"After we detected a boom tube from Apokolips last week, we were expecting company. Just not from the Justice League.""And I could not be more relieved."

"The sphere there was all that came through, as far as my team were able to tell."

Ishiftback to civilian clothing,dropmy construct armour andturn downmy environmental shield.

"You know of Apokolips?""There goes the neighbourhood."

"A bit. That's why we're here. We picked up the sphere in Bialya. If Bialya's trading with Apokolips, knowing a bit isn't good enough."

He nods. There's a gurgling noise from the kitchen, and he starts to look around before stopping himself.

"I suppose something like this was inevitable.""Goodbye, splendid isolation."

Barda stalks out of the kitchen having retied her dressing gown, and thrusts a cup of coffee into my chest.

"Coffee.""See, Icanbe polite to guests."

"Ah, thank you, but I don't-"

"Coffee. You will drink it.""What's wrong with my coffee?"

"Yes sir."

I put my hands on the mug and she lets go, staring at me expectantly. I don't like coffee, but if it makes things easier…

Ring, I want to taste blackcurrant.

Compliance.

I bring the mug to my lips and take a gulp. Yep, blackcurrant. Good work, ring.

"Lovely. Thank you."

She actually smiles a bit, then turns to walk around behind Mister Free, putting her hands on his shoulders. Diana comes back in and hands the phone to Mister Free. That was quick.

"That was quick?"

"There's a protocol for this sort of thing. I just had to give an address."

Mister Free looks up at Barda for a moment, then turns his attention to Diana.

"So, what does the Justice League need from us?"

7th September

07:18 GMT -4

I'm sitting at the main computer in the training area, trying to remember everything I ever learned about the New Gods. Scott Free and Barda agreed that it was in their interest to provide information, though neither of them want to be active participants in League activities. Maybe that will change later. They both had things to do today, and since we don't have intelligence of an imminent attack Diana agreed to leave them to it. Hopefully we'll have a better idea of what's going on once they've had time to put pen to paper.

Barda got over that whole tearing-up-the-front-garden incident really quickly. She and Diana left together to visit her gym, and I strongly suspect that my mentor now has a new sparring partner. The sphere opted to come back with me to the mountain, and Teekl found the whole thing rather dull. They're around -somewhere- but both lost interest in me when it became apparent that I was just going to sit here and work.

The reason the Frees linked a polite knock at the door to the boom tube in Bialya was that as I had earlier guessed, Diana 'feels' like a New God. And apparently the orange light 'feels' Apokoliptian. They aren't familiar with other forms of super-advanced technology. I'm going to have to be more careful about scanning New Genesisians in future.

Out of all the toys Mister Free showed me while Barda and Diana were bonding over unarmed combat techniques, I recognised only the discs. They're his Aero-Discs, Enerjams are much smaller and do something completely different. He stuck it on my back because he wasn't sure that I could take Barda hitting me. The Disc converted the kinetic energy of her strike into spinning motion. It was only due to the ring that I wasn't disabled by dizziness. They have one Mother Box -Barda's- between them, and while they could use it to generate a boom tube the forces of Apokolips would detect that almost immediately. I was surprised to learn that Mister Free never had one. I guess they don't give valuable equipment like that to mere Aero-Troopers. He's been slowly trying to rebuild his old tool here on Earth. Slow and difficult, but he actually laughed when Diana offered him a scrambler for his phone line.

In practical terms, I now know how to detect boom tubes with the ring. I can't honestly claim to have understood the description of how it functions, but Mister Free did have a container holding a group of what he called 'super inflated gravitons' in storage, and apparently those appear in a very particular pattern around a boom tube terminus. I'll know for sure next time one is used, I suppose. One other point of interest is that Mister Free has never been to New Genesis. He knows that Highfather Izaya the Inheritor is his father, but since he doesn't remember him at all he doesn't feel any particular need to prioritise visiting.

Only odd thing was them both insisting that I'd shouted 'Pointless stop stop stop' just before I went to pick up the sphere, and I certainly don't remember doing that. They were so sure that I checked with the ring, and it agreed with me. Strange, but then again they are aliens. Maybe the Apokoliptican language uses a lot of gestures? I don't think the ring would translate those the other way. Maybe I should test that?

Sitting down and writing about the military of Apokolips has reminded me of one of the Tales of the New Gods characters whose story I rather liked. Need to remember to ask Barda whether or not Canis Minor exists. I remember his story ending with Darkseid ordering Kanto to kill him, but I've no idea if or when that might happen. If he even exists here. I know that Parademons are a serious threat, but I'm having trouble imagining what the Dog Soldiers would actually look like. People couldn't take that seriously when Games Workshop did it in Warhammer 40,000, for goodness sake.

The console beeps at me. Incoming message from Red Arrow? I tap the button to answer it.

"Domino's Pizza. Can I take your order?"

There's a pause.

"Who is this?"

"Orange Lantern two eight one four. And you're Red Arrow. Good morning. How have you been?"

"Put Kaldur on."

"Kaldur's in Poseidonis, and everyone else is at school. Can I take a message?"

I hear a sigh.

"I need access to the Justice League's database, and the exact height of the League of Shadows assassin known as Onyx."

"One moment, justconfirming your identity…"

A small orange model of his immediate environment forms next to me. He's standing outside a conference centre of some sort, behind one of the decorative pillars at the entrance. He's in Taipei, and the gathered press seems quite excited about something. I swirl my right index finger around as Icall upthe information he wants. I only remember Onyx in the comics from when she worked for Batman as some gang leader's bodyguard. I haven't bothered reading up on her here because, well, the evidence so far has suggested that ninjas aren't a threat to me.

"Nice suit. Alright, she's one metre seventy one."

"Um. In feet?"

"Err... Five foot six. You want me to back you up? I can be with you in about twenty seconds."

"Please. The last thing I need is the Junior Justice League."

"A'ight. Suit yourself."

Ring, is whatever's happening in that building important?

New reports indicate that a meeting between the representatives of North Rhelasia and South Rhelasia is taking place. Scans detect heightened levels of military activity on their shared border.

Right. Korea might not be called Korea here, but it's history is pretty similar. Only difference is that it's not ruled by a Kim, but by a military aristocracy. Like Burma, I suppose. If the conference goes badly I suppose there might be a limited military exchange, but I think I'm too jaded about stuff like that to really care.

The little orange model of Red Arrow has it's bow out, and is ducking behind a bush. Security there must be really bad if he can get that close.

Person of interest detected.

Onyx isn't a person of interest. That's a very short list.

Who?

The image zooms in on a limousine which is just pulling up to the gates leading to the conference centre, and then enters the vehicle.

Alexander Luthor? Good call, ring.Who's that in the car with him? Mercy Graves if I remember Superman: the Animated Series correctly… A gynoid? No, the ring's feeding me her schematics. Cyborg. The same structural reinforcing that idiot with the hook had, but at least her right forearm contains a concealed gun rather than a fishing line. Some sort of plasma pulse weapon, and there's a smattering of other augmetics throughout her body. Looks like fairly conventional technology -if a little better than anything on the market at present- so I doubt she gets many shots before she needs to recharge.

Itransferthe scan data to the Justice League's systems.

Ring, why is Mister Luthor at a peace conference?

LexCorp subsidiaries do business with both countries. Diplomatic communications from both sides indicate that they have accepted his offer to serve as a mediator.

I have spent a significant amount of time looking into Mister Luthor. I haven't been able to find anysystematicfinancial irregularities. There are occasions where it looks like bribery -or at least generous campaign contributions. Why the heck do Americans elect judges anyway?- might have been made, but there's nothing concrete in the electronic records. Supervillains? LexCorp is licensed to research kryptonite, which is fairly uncommon here. I think I recognised a few names on the employee roll, but again, no smoking gun. Whenever anything seriously dodgy has happened there's always been several gaps between it and Mister Luther, to the point where if I didn't have 'special' knowledge I don't think I'd be able to convince myself of his involvement.

Duuuusuh. If Red Arrow thinks that the League of Shadows are targeting this conference, it might be worth me putting in an appearance in person. There are aspects of the personal philosophy ofsomeversions of Lex Luthor that could be useful to me, and our species as a whole. I need to know which version I'm dealing with. Plus, I would sort of like to ask him about Kon. I didtellKon that I knew the source of his Human tissue, but he's never asked for a name.

I get up,armour up, andtransitionto the mountain's back door. Apparently, when I use the ring's FTL I leave a wavy orange line behind me which persists for a fraction of a second. People would probably dismiss one or two, but if I keep leaving the mountain like that it will be noticed. Iprograma route to Taipei which takes me a long way out to sea before curving to my eventual destination. Not the conference centre itself, I don't intend to get close without seeing the area with my own eyes. There's an orange neon sign a few streets away that should conceal me.

Engage.

7th September

19:23 GMT 8

Glowing orange sign in front of me. Looks like I've arrived.Ring, remote view.

Roy is pinned beneath a woman I immediately recognise as Onyx, who in turn is surrounded by armed guards with automatic rifles levelled at her head. Someone needs to teach them about overpenetration, they're going to shoot each other if she decides to risk making a break away. How the heck did she even get that close? Don't they check people? Don't they have perimeter guards?

She puts her hands behind her head instead, and one of the guards stows his weapon and puts plastic cuffs on her. That must have been just about the worst assassination attempt ever. Is Ra's really that stupid? I know that most of his trained people weren't on Infinity Island when the League smashed it, but he still isn't in a position to waste them like this. A distraction of some kind?

Ring, scan Onyx.

Scan complete.

She's physically fit and healthy, isn't carrying anything the ring recognises as an arcane device, and doesn't have any seriously concealed weapons. How the heck was she planning to get away, even if her attack was successful? And how was I able to scan her? After Infinity Island Ra's found a way to avoid my more sophisticated scans, and that immunity spread among the remaining known Shadow operatives faster than I could grab them. But I can scan her. The black in these lentils is so big there's barely any lentil left.

Oh dear. I'm going to have to do the thing with the ring. I hate the thing.

"Ring, omnicognisance, half a second."

Dughergherghugherghughergherghughahghugh.

I hate the thing. It doesn'tliterallymake me omnicognisant, but it does feed everything that could affect anything around me through my brain all at once, while providing me with just enough support to avoid haemorrhaging. The power consumption's ridiculous, and it makes me feel like curling up in a ball every time I use it. I'm leaning on the sign for support as I try to get my brain down to a mere fourth gear.

Quick, come on, what did I just know? No, I don't need the number of electrons in the bush Roy was hiding behind. I don't need his deodorant brand. Come on, weapons, threats… No, not the visual range of the damn combat maid, I doubt Mister Luthor would risk being accompanied by something with a computer system thatwasn'tisolated. She'scarryinga computer, for goodness sake. Wait, why are they pointing their weapons at Roy? No, no, he can manage that.

Tied. Rope. Enclosed. Yes, yes, what else?

Venom Buster.

Scan scan scan!

I can't detect the poor bastard tied to the vial, but Icandetect the drug itself. He's in one of the kiosks around the edge of the park area in front of the convention centre. Everyone's watching Roy and the press and other rubberneckers are gathering and he's going to plough straight through themtransition now!

I'm now in mid air in front of the convention centre. The kiosk is in front of me, and I get abarrieraround it just as the automated plunger sinks into the bloke inside and he erupts through the wooden structure in a geyser of grey muscle. Shit.Armour construct. The wooden fragments are contained by the barrier and now people have started screaming and running. Good, good, get out of the way. I didn't think that Venom Buster worked that fast? No, not the point. Whoever that was is still roaring in confusion, but he'll start testing my barrier soon enough.

I've kept up to date on the investigation into the Venom Buster samples we recovered from Santa Prisca. Venom is a fairly comprehensible super steroid. Its effect is entirely chemical, though I suspect that the chemicals wouldn't have that sort of effect back home. Blockbuster is another kettle of fish. Itdoesinteract chemically with Venom, but there's nowhere for the extra mass it produces to come from. It certainly doesn't cause the Human body to produce its own Venom, so how does it make the boost permanent? The only thing I could think of was alchemy, but-

"Raaaaaagh!"

Two enhanced fists rise up and swing down onto my barrier, which cracks. Doesn't matter.

Ring, scan.Tell me how we can fix him.

Unable to comply. Scan protection still in effect.

He's alternating fists now, focusing on the weak spot and hammering into it with. The rents in his outer carapace are even worse than Mister Flinders' were, and I can clearly see muscle and fat beneath. The barrier feels increasingly precarious. The soldiers and bodyguards around Roy have reorientated to face the new threat, and Red Arrow himself has risen to his feet and grabbed his bow. It's a little gratifying that no one's aimed anything at me yet.

This might actually be an opportunity. We still don't know what it is that is preventing me from scanning League of Shadow operatives.

Ring, visual scan.Any of that look magical?

No listed sigils detected.

"Red Arrow, shield dropping in nine seconds, quick hardening foam arrow if you please."

"I don't take orders from you."

"That wasn't an order, that was a re-"

The shield breaks and the monster stumbles forwards, taking Roy's foam arrow full in the chest.

"Auraaagh!

"-quest. Thank you."

Odd. I got the impression that Mister Flinders retained his full intelligence. What's going on here? And why is Mister Luthor getting out of his car?

Ring, ShockCrown Onyx to prevent shenanigans.

Compliance.

She wasn't doing much other than sitting in the police car, but I don't feel like taking the risk. Okay, the new monster was basically just wearing a kilt thing. Might even have just been a sheet someone threw over him. It was plain, anyway. Something he ingested? Could be.

The foam has hardened, covering all but the head of his hunched, elephantine form. The foam actually still has a little give in it to prevent shattering, but the man inside is giving it his best and it seems to be weakening. Roy fires another arrow, and a cloud of gas envelopes the target's head. A normal person would have been knocked out, but this guy's fine.

Why is that reporter still standing there?

Can't risk a ShockCrown without a better look at his brain structure. Wait, Flinders' peripheral nervous structure was basically the same after his transformation. A Pithing Needle should still work, and with all those holes I shouldn't have to dig my way in. Yep, there's a very painful looking opening at his neck.

Pithing Needle.

An orange line from my right shoulder terminated at his neck rupture. He shudders and stills as it blocks nonessential nervous activity. Fuuw. Alright, now to fix him. I float closer, then open my arms wide andgeneratesonic imaging equipment.

Ring, detailed sonic scan.What shouldn't be there?

There's a tiny ripple in the air as the emitters do their thing. The thickness of his epidermis makes it hard to make sense of the internal picture, but the ring sorts it out easily enough. He's swallowed something, a tiny piece of metal far denser than the surrounding tissue. Disrupting its physical structure should end it's effect. A shame that I wouldn't be able to-

"Stop! Land on the ground and raise your hands!"

I'll pretend I didn't hear that. Ring,sonic scalpel, thenfull scanwhen able.

A moment, and the sonic image shows the target object bend and twist as intersecting beams of sonic energy converge with only minimal damage to the surrounding tissue.

Scan complete.

Venom Buster, and some sort of stimulant I don't immediately recognise. Manageable. Take a moment. Then focusfocusfocusfocus.

!Flawless victory!

"Purge and repair."

The man before me shrivels inside the foam as the ring negates the effects of the drug cocktail. I hope that he makes a full recovery. My scan from immediately before his transformation and of his blood chemistry should remove any suspicion that he was a willing participant. I remove the Pithing Needle as his shrinking drops him down into the hole in the foam made by his former, larger body, and the ring knits his skin back together. Icutaway the foam just as he reaches his original size and collapses to the tarmac.

I turn. That camera's pointing at me.

"Could someone please get this man some medical attention?"

7th September

19:27 GMT 8

I look down the barrel of the automatic rifle levelled at my face, andswitchmy armour construct over from 'reflect' to 'absorb'. Don't want this idiot shooting himself in the face or anything.

"You don'tlooklike a doctor, so I'm just going to ignore you, alright?"

I turn back to the man on the floor. The whole team has been trained in performing basic first aid on Humans, but given the chemical and psychological ringerthis guy'sbeen through… Huang Jianhong, apparently. Works as a travel agent. Ifloathim upright andlendhim some clothes, the kilt not having survived his shrinkage. Iscanhim again. Yes, just as I feared, brain and liver damage from the Venom, plus the general shock… Um. Right.Gurney. The brain is a pretty resilient organ really, and the patterns of damage are standard between-

"What are you doing?"

Female voice. I don't recognise it.

"Areyoua doctor?"

"Ah. No?"

"Then would you mind terribly making yourself useful and getting one? Mister Huang here is showing symptoms it normally takes Venom users years to-"

I turn as I speak, and come face to face with a blonde woman being closely followed by a cameraman.

"-develop.Ah..? Miss Grant, isn't it?"

She smiles and nods.

"Cat Grant, GBS News."

Our public relations training is sometime next month. Thatmayhave been an oversight.

"Orange Lantern two eight one four, and I'm still not seeing a doctor?"

Right, do the liver first. Standard damage pattern. Is he going to mind if I make him lactose tolerant? No, just do what you need to.Regenerate. Good. Yes, good...

"Why are you tying him down? I don't think he's going anywhere."

"Miss Grant, I am attempting to undo the damage caused by the cocktail of combat drugs he just had stuffed into him. I'd like professional medical advice, but since the universe seems to be conspiring against me on that score, I'mjust going to…"

A little forced cell duplication, and a tiny change in chemical balances. As when I restored Kon's inner ear I don't precisely understand what these things do, but I know what they're supposed to look like. The amygdala's the worst hit, but assuming that he didn't have any head injuries beforehand he should now process memory and emotion as well as any well socialised individual.

!Higher!

In fact, why not go a little further?It's so obvious when youreallylook at it. A slightrearrangingof blood vessels, atweakof the neurons...

"Going to what?"

"Hm? Oh, sorry. Fix as much of it as I can."

"He just tried to attack the peace conference."

"Yes, Ihadspotted that."

The cerebral cortex is second worst hit. In some places I can tell where cell death has occurred. Those,I fix. Ugh, I shouldn't take the risk on a general touch up until a professional has gone over it.

"Then-"

"Miss Grant, his name is Mister Huang Jianhong. He is gainfully employed, has no criminal record or history of disorderly conduct, and until about a minute ago he was tied up in that stall over there, with a plunger full of a particularly nasty form of Venom strapped to his arm. I very much doubt that his participation in this attack was voluntary, and even if itwere, the attack isover."

I turn angrily.

"And where's the gods damned-"

A couple of people in white uniforms with red crosses on their sleeves run down the conference centre steps.

"Uh, thank goodness. Over here!"

I make a beckoning motion with my right arm. The medic furthest forwards starts to move in my direction on instinct, then gets a better look and slows down. Oh, don't make me come over there. Ishiftthe gurney around toward him, and his sense of duty gets the better of his trepidation. He fishes a small torch out, and checks Mister Huang's pupil dilation.

"What happened?"

"Huang Jianhong, twenty seven year old Taiwan national. He was injected with a mixture of the steroid 'Venom' and a mutagen called the Blockbuster Formula. I've removed both, but he's unconscious and there's residual damage roughly equivalent to seven years regular Venom use."

He sucks in air through his teeth.

"I've repaired most of the damage, but-."

A look of scepticism.

"You repaired his amygdala?"

A flash of my left palm.

"Power rings are awesome."

He's transfixed for a moment.

"Aaaaah. Right. Hey, you two!"

He gets the attention of two stretcher bearing orderlies, who hurry over. Idismissthe gurney and lift Mister Huang onto it.

"We'll take him to the convention centre's medical station until the ambulance arrives. Was anyone else hurt?"

"Don't think there's anything serious. Might be some cuts and bruises."

He nods, and heads off to check on the bodyguard-encrusted negotiators.

Alright, what now? Red Arrow's surrounded by security, but they aren't pointing weapons at him anymore, and one of them is on the radio asking for instructions. The police car containing the now paralysed Onyx is pulling away, and if they can't get her into a secure cell within the two or three hours the ShockCrown effect will last they deserve to have her escape. In the distance I can hear the siren of the ambulance.

"Do you have time to talknow?"

Oh, right. Miss Grant's still there.

"Probably, but please don't be offended if I have to rush off suddenly."

Ring, any weapons in the immediate vicinity not in the control of the security forces?

No such weapons detected. However, weapons held by League of Shadow operatives may not register.

"Ah-hem. Orange Lantern, what do you think triggered the attack?"

Supplement with sonic and electromagnetic scans, run continuous.

Compliance.

"The bald black woman was Onyx, a League of Shadow operative. Either they've got an interest in the Rhelasian conflict, or someone paid them. We'll know more once the police have had a chance to investigate."

I wait for the follow up. Nothing comes. Why is-?

"Nicely done… Orange Lantern, wasn't it?"

I know the voice from background research. I didwantto talk to him, I suppose. I turn, and offer him a polite nod of acknowledgement.

"Mister Luthor. Good evening."

7th September

19:27 GMT 8

"You really should have stayed in the car until security had a chance to check the area."

The other news crews might be a little slower -or a little more inclined to self preservation- than Miss Grant, but they're recovering now and I'm in front of the rapidly forming security perimeter on the convention centre forecourt. Cameras, Lex Luthor, and a superhero who's just helped him. I know what he's going to do even as he steps up and holds out his right hand to me.

But I'm not Superman. I extend mine,dissipatingthe armour construct around it. He turns his body slightly to present a better view to the cameras. Since he's on my left, my right arm is pulled slightly across my body. He releases my hand, and puts his arm around my shoulders.

"Oh, you seem to have things under control. It was thoughtful of you to ensure that your attacker got medical treatment. And took the time to publically dismiss him as a suspect."

"He was forcibly drugged. His actions weren't his choice."

"Still, you'd be surprised how many of your colleagues wouldn't have worried about it. Do you know the man?"

"No. Fortunately, Taiwan has a computerised national identity register and I have a power ring. Power rings are awesome."

"So I see."

He turns, applying gentle pressure to my back to encourage me to go with him. Hm. I suppose my objective now is to protect the peace conference, since I'm here. But my mentors are already going to be annoyed about the pictures.

"Excuse me."

Itransitionto a space just off the ground next to Red Arrow, and hold my arms out as the ringgeneratesmultiple monitor screens.

Ring, points of interest at random.

Compliance.

The guards start at my appearance.

"Making friends with Luthor?"

Seems that Mister Harper isn't happy. Again.

"We appear to have a convergence of interests. And I don't like alienating people without good reason."

"Hmn."

Nothing much on the screens, though one of them is showing a recording of me that will shortly be playing on GBS news. If it isn't already. Looks like I film pretty well.

"Do you have any information on other Shadow operatives who might also have been contracted?"

I'm not looking directly at him myself, but aswitchone of the smaller screens over to his face and see his eyes narrow at me.

"… No. I picked up Onyx's fake ID coming in at the airport."

"Using public transportation?"

"The Justice League taking out Infinity Island's made it hard for the Shadows to use front companies to hire private jets, and a boat from the mainland wouldn't have made the journey in time for the conference."

I allow myself a moment of smug. Wait a second. Not only is there now a line of security guards and police between the conference centre and the crowd, there's also a loose cluster around us.

Pfffffff.

Ipushthe screens out of the way, and drift over to one of the security personnel.

"Um, excuse me?"

He's wearing dark glasses, but Ithinkhe's looking at me. His hands tighten slightly on his pistol, but it stays down.

"Should I? Present, y'know, credentials?"

Itakemy identification card out of subspace.

He looks at it, then presses a hand to his earpiece.

"Red Arrow, you've got one of these, right?"

I point to the card. His mouth tightens.

"No."

Really?

"Really?"

He gives me a look… Okay, not pressing that point. One of the other security guards walks over and takes the card from my unresisting hand. He looks at the card, then at me.

How many people does he know whoglow orange?

"You're a member of the Justice League?"

"No no, that just means that I've been deputised by one of them. If you phone the Themysciran embas-"

"Incoming communication from a priority source."

"Um, excuse me a moment."

I raise my left hand to my cheek.

"Orange Lantern two eight one four?"

"Orange Lantern, why can I see you on the news?"

It's Diana.

"A League of Shadows operative tried to attack the Rhelasian peace conference. Their assassin decided to use Venom Buster.. or something like it.. on a civilian as a distraction."

"Why are youshaking hands with Lex Luthor?"

"Because he's acting as an intermediary at the conference, and was right in the line of fire when the attack happened. Guess he likes not being pulverised."

"P- Orange Lantern, listen to me.Do nottrust him. Don't accept any offers from him. Don't-"

There's a sort of beeping noise.

"Oh Hera. Don't go anywhere, I've got another call."

Oh… Kay…

I lower my hand. The security guard who took my card is standing next to Mister Luthor, who's talking on his mobile phone and nodding. Did Mister Luthor arrange the security for this? I wouldn't have thought so, but I don't really know how this sort of event gets organised. I drift back to my monitors, and sit in the air. One of the many often overlooked functions of a power ring is that it keeps your circulation fine. No pins and needles or dizziness from getting up too quickly ever.

The police car carrying the recumbent Onyx passes through the outer gates with it's escort. I watch them go. Since there hasn't been another follow up attack we're probably safe for now, and with the security around I don't have to worry about interview questions.

Mister Luthor lowers his phone with a smirk.

"We have confirmation. The 'Orange Lantern' does indeed work for Wonder Woman, and-"

He makes momentary eye contact with Roy.

"-the other.. -Red Arrow, wasn't it?- is Green Arrow's pal."

7th September

19:33 GMT 8

The shortest and fattest police officer does not look happy about this.

"Whoever they are, they should be questioned."

Mister Luthor smiles at him.

"The Justice League vouches for them, Captain, and so does Lex Luthor. I think that-"

He nods at the pile of rock foam which still holds the shape of Mister Huang's augmented body. News photographers are taking pictures of it. I wonder if it needs some sort of special solvent..?

"-given what they've already done, it would be doing them a grave disservice to treat them as if they were under suspicion."

Captain Fatty thinks about it, then nods. Security personal gradually move away from us. Perhaps I should consider them brave for putting themselves in a position where they might have to try and contain me, but actually I just think of them as stupid for not recognising a completely untenable position.

"I don't need any favors from you."

Mister Harper shoots Mister Luthor a look of pure adolescent resentment. As he walks past me I stick out an arm and smile at him.

"Red Arrow. Gift horse, mouth. Picking a fight with Mister Luthor will simply make our job harder."

"No one asked you."

The git actually sneers at me, and pushes past. Mister Luthor doesn't react.

"Apologies. I didn't realise you wished to join that young woman behind bars."

"You may have everyone here fooledLuthor, but Iknowwhat you are."

"Oh, I don't pretend to be an angel. It just so happens that this time I'm on the side of the angels."

He takes a few steps towards the conference centre doors, then looks back at me over his shoulders.

"Will you be joining us?"

"Need a quick chat with my colleague first. Be riiight with you."

He acknowledges with a slight inclination of his head, then continues on slowly towards the doors.

Idropthe screens andzipover to where Mister Harper is staring moodily at Mister Luthor's back.

"Red Arrow. You're angry. And I respect that, but-"

"LexCorp shell companies sell weapons to NorthandSouth Rhelasia. He's probably just here to negotiate a better price."

"Of course he sells to both sides. One of them might win if he didn't. Look, Alexander Luthor is very good at making potential opponents angry and stupid, and you are angry andhe will play you. You know that, right?"

He averts his eyes, and inclines his head slightly.

"You're also a considerably more experienced investigator than I am so, given that we've defeated the first attack, what happens next?"

"The League of Shadows won't stop until the contract is fulfilled. But if they're not following up now, we probably have a few hours before they try again."

"The thing I did to paralyse Onyx should have worn off by then. How's about I stick around here and.. put a shield in the way of anyone dodgy looking, while you work out who the next wave are and where they're coming from?"

He narrows his eyes at me, and I respond with a friendly grin.

"Fine. I don't think I could stand to be in the same room as Luthor anyway."

"Best of luck. Let me know if I can help you in any way at all."

He takes a step away, then frowns.

"Why's Kaldur in Poseidonis anyway?"

"Weeee kind of beat Ocean Master into a coma this morning, and it turns out he was Prince Orm all along. Things are a bit hectic."

"Oh."

I think he's blinking behind those dark glasses, but he gets over it after a moment and continues on his way back to wherever he's been basing himself.

Right. So. Dealing with Kon's other Dad. Mister Luthor's standing at the door. Why is he waiting for me? Oh well;transition.

"Glad you could join me."

He hands back my card, and Isubspaceit. He then steps forwards, and the glass automatic doors slide open with a slight hiss. I follow, and Mercy brings up the rear.

The lobby is large and richly upholstered. In the left and right wings medics are tending to the injured of the North and South. I don't seeMister Huang… Oh, he's being loaded onto an ambulance already. They made pretty good time. Or maybe they were here already? Not sure. A quickscanconfirms that none of the injuries are serious. Actually…

Ring, remaining power?

Seventy seven percent remaining.

Should be fine. I don't usually like escort missions, but nothing I've seen the League of Shadows do suggests they have anything that's an actual threat to me.

"Hiring assassins, Li? Had you no one among your own troops to do the North's dirty work?"

Who? Oh. Prime Minister Tseng is shouting across from the South's medical station to the North's, the pink plasters on his face giving his complaint a slightly farcical air.

"I need no assassin, Tseng. Such is the method of a Southern coward."

"Good luck, Mister Luthor."

"Oh, it's mostly posturing. Even agreeing to meet like this means they risk looking weak to the hardliners back home. When the cameras aren't on them they can be surprisingly reasonable."

"Why give the cameras access to anything at all then?"

"Because theyneedto look strong. I.. take it that you'll be joining us for the deliberations?"

"If you'll have me. Power rings are very good at shielding things. If Red Arrow can't track the League of Shadows down before they launch another attack, I should be able to stop it."

"Feeling confident?"

"I've encountered members of the League of Shadows on two previous occasions. On neither occasion did they manage to present a significant threat to me."

"Then it sounds like we're in good hands. Now, if you'll excuse me?"

He walks past the cluster of photographers, and addresses the belligerent factions.

"Gentlemen, gentlemen. Shall we attempt some smiles, for the cameras?"

"Incoming communication from a priority source."

I raise my left hand to my cheek again.

"Orange Lantern two eight one four?"

"How's the conference going?"

Diana again.

"No one'sdiedyet sir. And before you say anything, I do recognise the threat Mister Luthor poses. I know he's about as trustworthy as a used lawnmower salesman. I'm not going to do anything stupid."

"I'm glad to hear it. The Rhelasian representatives seem fairly hostile."

"Mister Luthor thinks… Mister Luthortoldme that he thinks they're just posing. I have to say, assassins aside, I'm not worried. The equivalent country in my home parallel is much more harshly divided, and they've managed to avoid all out war since the fifties."

"You'll have to tell me all about it some time."

"It's not that complicated. I suppose these things never are when you're not personally involved."

7th September

21:26 GMT 8

I now know more about Rhelasian history and politics than any rational person could possibly want to. The meeting has temporarily broken up, and the two parties have retreated to their separate dining areas for coffee and cool down. They certainly got less shouty once the cameras were off them, but that just gave them the opportunity to list their grievances inprecisedetail. Ithinkthat Mister Luthor's making some headway. They've agreed in principle to reduce their mutual military build ups, and set up a committee to negotiate fishing rights. Honestly, I'd have said that he was giving them too much rein, but perhaps letting them vent their spleens helps?

I connected the ring to the conference centre's slightly-less-closed-than-it-used-to-be circuit cameras, supplemented by sonic, electromagnetic and radiation scans from the ring. The results are then compared to the results of a standard scan, and if the first set show someone the seconddoesn't, then we've got a Shadow. I've also had the ring feed me information on everyone whose face it registers. There was an episode of Justice League Animated where J'onn J'onzz tried to scan an entire city to find Lex Luthor, and ended up having an episode himself. I'm sort of starting to understand how he felt. I know names, addresses, personal histories, confirmed from multiple sources, and the whole thing isstaying in my mind. Since I'm taking a break, the ring's set to notify me of any problems but isn't currently feeding me data for review.

I've taken refuge in the large room set aside for public announcements. With any luck, at some point tonight they'll be signing some sort of agreement here, but at the moment it's deserted. I'm sitting at one of the seats at the end of the long table, arms crossed and draped on the tabletop, body slumped. Today has been an unusually violent day for me, and I'm not… I'm not entirely comfortable with how well I'm handling it. Shouldn't I have trouble with cutting off a man's hands? It's not like I want to, so is the ring keeping me going?

I straighten slightly, and hold my left palm open facing me. I stare at the ring, right index finger tracing the circle on the sigil. I've been telling myself that wearing it all the time is the logical thing to do, but… Am I stillme, if it overwrites my natural response with that of an idealised version of me? The body thing I don't mind, but my brain is-

"Ah, there you are."

I straighten the rest of the way, feeling a momentary burst of guilt at occupying a seat not intended for me. No, that's stupid.

"Are they starting back already? I thought we had a few more…"

Lex Luthor walks in from the 'off stage' position, arms held loosely behind his back. He shakes his head.

"Oh no, we don't reconvene for anotheeer…"

He checks his watch.

"Twelve minutes."

I nod. He walks passed the table, and then turns along the edge of the stage.NoMercy? Ah, she's by the door.

"I wanted to have a quick chat with you before we started back."

AndnowI remember that in one version of his origin he got his start by killing his parents for the insurance money. I know that he didn't inherit the whole thing Smallville style here, and I doubt that any evidence of such a crime would have survived the thirty or so years since it would have to have happened.

"I'm afraid that I'm unlikely to know anything about Rhelasia that you don't, but if you think it'll help?"

He stops, centre stage, and turns his head halfway around to me.

"I am finding it a little refreshing, speaking to a man in your profession who doesn't treat me suspicion, or with outright hostility."

"There's no margin in it."

I shrug.

"Perhaps you're a problem and perhaps you're not. I'm not going to get excited about it until you'remyproblem."

A wry smile.

"A commendablyrationalattitude."

He turns fully around to me, framed by the empty room and the large rear window.

"Ihadrather been under the impression that those rings only came in green."

"Really? I happen to know that Lanterns of at least two other colours have been active on Earth in the recent past."

His eyes stop focusing on me directly. The change is slight, and if the ring hadn't enhanced my own vision I would probably not have noticed.

"Are you.. referring to Star Sapphire?"

"Never try and consume an energy field larger than your head, Mister Luthor. It tends to make a person erratic."

"Sage advice, I'm sure."

His arms come forward, left across his chest, right elbow resting on his left hand, right fist to his chin.

"You'll forgive me if I say that I'm a little concerned about this. You appear to be a man of good character, but… representatives of alien organisations, given authority to act as they see fit on worlds that have no say in the matter?"

"I don't know how the Guardians handle things, but I'm sure that if Earth ever gets a unified government then my own.. overseers, the Controllers, would be perfectly happy to negotiate a treaty defining my rights and responsibilities. Since no such organisation or treaty exists, I work for the Justice League, who operate under the nearest thing to a sensible legal framework for my work that exists here. Ultimately, you can't ask a criminal if they mind being arrested. There are worlds out there that are home to truly vile civilisations, and Lanterns may be called upon to act against them for the good of the rest of the galaxy. Asking them if they're happy with that is a nonstarter."

"They wouldonlynegotiate with a unified planetary government?"

"Those advanced alien civilisations I know about, virtually all of them have some sort of central authority. I'm not sure they'dmindtalking to someone else, exactly, but I doubt they'd think it was worth their time, talking to a relatively small nation state."

"Mmm. And how would one get in contact with these.. Controllers? I assume.. through you..?"

"Not until my probation's up. Ten months, if you're wondering. The Greenies could do it now, but…"

I wave at him, and he nods.

"Yes, I see."

"The only other alternative is travelling to Maltus, and I don't think that Earth technology is quite up to the task."

Hm. Now's as good a time as any, I suppose. Ring,brain scan.

"Actually Mister Luthor, while you're here, there was something I wanted to talk to you about."

"Oh? What would that be."

"Well, a lot of people seem to have the impression that a superhero's job is to use their powers to make the world a better place. But, in my experience, it mostly just involves preventing it from getting worse. I mean, this conference. We both want it to work, but, if you fail, a war happens. If you succeed, a war that isn't happening at the moment continues to not be happening. Worthdoing, certainly, but it's a bit… lacking? The best case is that things carry on as they are."

"Ideally, these negotiations will form the starting point of a gradual reduction of tensions throughout the Rhelasian peninsula. If we're fortunate, we will be able to prevent future altercations of this kind, and both countries will be able to divert resources away from military spending and on to projects which help their people. Making their lives better, rather than guarding against them getting worse, as you put it. Improving the lives of seventy four million people is hardly an insignificant success."

"But my participation is limited to preventing the League of Shadows from murdering you. Maybe I'm just being.. arrogant, but I'd like to see an improvement thatIdid. I mean, even the Shadows managed to get hold of the Blockbuster Formula from Cadmus, combine it with Venom, then utilise it to pursue their objective. There's all this super advanced technology around, and no one uses it to the benefit of people as a whole. Miss Grave's arm-"

I turn and point in her direction.

"-is less sophisticated than something Thomas Morrow built seventy years ago. That, shouldn't happen. And the superheroes are nearly as bad."

He raises an eyebrow.

"Do you see any supercomputers based on Kryptonian crystal technology around the place?"

He nods.

"What would you like to do about it?"

"I don't know. Give STAR Labs a truly obscene amount of money? Work on commercialising what they produce? Did you know that when James Dyson came up with the cyclone vacuum cleaner idea, he went to Hoover with it first. After they refused to buy it and he built his own company, he spoke to one of their executives and they told him that if they'd know what was going to happen, they'd have bought the patent off him andsat on it. Because they had the market working just as they liked it. And stuff like that's probably happening everywhere, in every field of innovation. You go out into the universe, you see how far behind we are compared to some of the hostile species who are capable of visiting us… We can't afford to do stupid stuff like that. We can't… be firing on anything less than all cylinders. Actually, that's one of the reasons why I respect you so much."

"It's nice to be thought highly of, but I'm.. not.. quite.. sure..?"

"You funded Cadmus Labs, Mister Luthor."

7th September

21:31 GMT 8

He's silent for a moment, presumably considering his options.

"While it's not impossible that LexCorp hadsomesort of financial interest in Cadmus-."

"Oh, don't be so modest. The Greenies might be happy to use their xenotech hypercomputers as blunt instruments, but I like to think I'm a little cleverer than they are."

I turn my left hand palm up, and generate an orange sigil.

"Forensic accountancy. LexCorp put alotof money into that place, and I can't believe you wouldn't have had to approve something like that yourself. Look, I get it's PR poisonnow, but the biotech work they were doing is exactly the sort of thing the Earthneeds. There's spacefaring races that don't have telepathic communication networks."

Still no response. Hmm.

"I'd feel slightly more comfortable if they'd managed to create a technique which granted the ability to Humans, rather than building an artificial life form. I mean, Henry King was active in the forties, Simon Jones and Edgar Cizko in the modern era. It can't bethathard to do."

"Human… augmentation… can be legally problematic."

"Well, that needs to change for a start. The technology for reliable Human augmentation has existed for over a century, legislators can't just pretend it doesn't happen. Do they prefer it just happens to people at random?"

"I sometimes rather think that they do. It gives them an excuse not to have to deal with something difficult."

"Only thing I don't understand is why Cadmus was trying to clone Superman. A sufficiently detailed study of his cellular structure should have told them everything they needed to know about how his abilities work."

"My… understanding… is that Doctor Desmond was authorised to perform precisely that type of study. Why he took it upon himself to create an entire specimen I really couldn't say."

"You are aware that Superboy is a Kryptonian/Human hybrid?"

"Really? I wasn't aware that Human and Kryptonian tissues were… compatible."

"They're not. That's part of why it's so impressive."

"Orange Lantern, I'm not sure what you want me to say? I am the Chairman and Chief Executive of a extremely large multinational company. Even if I had approved funds for Cadmus, I wouldn't be involved in day to day operational decisions. Dare I ask who the donor of his Human DNA was?"

"Mister Luthor, I'm not the police, I'm not a reporter. I have a great deal of respect for you, so, please stop treating me like I'm an idiot. I don't believefor a secondthat you didn't authorise it. It workedfine. Superboy's a good friend of mine, and if there was actually a halfway sensible reason for creating him I'd approve. If it was something stupid, well, given all of your achievements, I can't tell you how disappointed I would be to find out you were running with the short bus crowd. And yes, you can tell Ra's al Ghul I called him that."

"Though I am… aware… of the leader of the League of Shadows, we're hardly on familiar terms. Ra's is something of a… competitor of mine."

Not working. New approach.

"Sooo…"

I squint at him.

"What's with the Superman obsession?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"The clone thing. Why clone Superman?"

"While I cannot claim to know for certain why anyone would want to clone Superman, I can see the logic in using material from the most prominent of the world's superhumans. Well, not 'Human', of course."

"Yeah, but if you can create an adult clone in six months, why not just create a Human and use the Danner formula? You get the strength and toughness, only drawback is that it has to be administered in vitro, and if your clones only take half a year… why not?"

A small frown.

"Danner formula?"

"Hugo Danner. America's first superhero? Fought in World War One? It'd make far more sense than that creepy yandere thing you've got going on with Superman."

Genuine puzzlement.

"Yan Dare? I'm afraid I don't follow..?"

"You created a son who has DNA from both of you. At this stage you might as well just stage a giant robot attack at a pride parade.Oh, why won't the alien love me!"

He actually chuckles.

"Orange Lantern, amusing as I'm sure the notion is to some people, you really should try to avoid believing everything you read in supermarket tabloids. I'll admit, my relationship with.. Superman, hasn't always been as productive as it might have been, but to suggest that I'm obsessed with him -especially inthatway- is simply to engage in the lowest form of sensationalism. If, as you say, Doctor Desmond took it upon himself to use my DNA in his research, then I honestly have no idea why. I'd suggest a somewhat unsettling attempt at favor currying but, given how erratic his behavior become prior to his dramaticexitfrom Cadmus… That would be pure speculation on my part."

He shifts slightly where he stands.

"How…isthe youth?"

"He's fine. The League's got a telepath working on properly integrating the data Cadmus programmed him with into his mind."

"I suppose that Superman's taken responsibility for his upbringing. He always did seem so keen on keeping hold of any fragments of Krypton that he could find."

Um..?

I hesitate, and he picks up on it.

"Ah? A little uncharacteristic. Dare I hope that the League hasn't simply dumped him somewhere? A growing boy needs proper guidance."

Calm. Stay calm.

"He's getting it."

He spends a moment examining me.

"Princess Diana?"

Shit.

"That's.. unexpected. Still, I suppose neither Superman nor myself are really equipped to act as mother figures. I suppose.. visitation rights are out of the question?"

!Kon help protect!

"As I said, he's being looked after. I even managed to augment him up to full Kryptonian strength. He's..!"

He'smine, is what I want to say. And then I want to say 'you can't have him', and then I want to hit him. A lot.Control.

"He's doing just fine. Thank you for your concern."

"If you say so. I'm sure the League knows it's business."

7th September

21:35 GMT 8

"Incoming transmission from Red Arrow."

Phew.

"Excuse me a moment."

Orange Lantern two eight one four.

Onyx has escaped.

Wha'?How?

Bane attacked the police station holding her with a rocket launcher. They escaped by helicopter.

In the middle of Taipei?How were they expecting to hidethat?The police'll be on them in, what, twenty minutes tops?

Not sure. I'm at their landing zone now.

You want me to back you up?

No. Stay with the conference. I'll tell you when I find out what's happening.

I nod.

Alright.Good luck.Thank you for keeping me in the loop.

Just keep your guard up. Red Arrow out.

I lower my hand. Weird. I undid the damage that Venom use did to Bane back when we attacked Santa Prisca. It doesn't make a person stupid, just aggressive, combative and somewhat mentally inflexible. And that shouldn't be affecting him yet even if he started using it again immediately. What is he doing this here? And why rescue Onyx? I know that he had a connection to the League of Shadows in the Nolan films, but I don't remember that from the comics and there's no record of it in the Justice League's database. I don't think that I have any information that would help Mister Harper.

"Trouble?"

"Hm? Oh, probably. A minor supervillain from Santa Prisca named Bane just broke Onyx out of the police station that was holding her. Red Arrow's in pursuit."

Mister Luthor nods, and checks his watch.

"We should probably be getting back. I find that it helps establish a position of authority if one is already at ease in the room when everyone else arrives."

I nod, rise, and follow him as he leads the way to the corridor. Miss Graves stays by the door as I walk through, then follows me. I was honestly expecting a little more hostility from her, or at least that she'd recognise me as a potential threat. Not that I intend to harm Mister Luthor without a very careful cost/benefit analysis, but still.

Actually, that reminds me. Idemandthat the universe give me a data stick, and lo, the ring transmutes one for me. It's grey, with an orange sigil on each of the larger sides.

Ring, transfer audiobookHow to Succeed in Evilonto the data stick.

Compliance.

"Mister Luthor?"

He keeps walking, but looks around. I hold the stick out to him.

"I think you might find this amusing, though I'm not sure it'll actually teach you anything."

Amused puzzlement, but he takes it and slips it into his breast pocket. I wonder how he'll feel about the ending? I suppose it isn't all that different to how the version of him from Superman: Red Son dealt with Superman. Or the way Justice League Unlimited Luthor dealt with Bizzaro.

We continue walking towards the conference room. Oh well, back to work.

Ring, resume dataflow.

Nothing.

Agh.Ring, resume dataflow.

A cleaner on floor twenty seven is smoking a cigarette out of a window. That's the extent of lawlessness in the entire building. No new faces since my last check. Nothing that registers as an out of place weapon.Outside? A few reporters have tagged in their replacements or gone to their trailers until something of note happens, but for the moment everything is peaceful.

Are Bane and Onyx just trying to scarper?

Ring, detect Bane.

Unable to comply.

Okay, workingwiththe League of Shadows?

Ring, detect Onyx.

Unable to comply.

Huh? Did she get one of the scan blocking things from Bane?

Ring, detect Red Arrow.

Got him. He's about fifteen miles away, running after a truck? No, I should keep my mind focused on my part of the job. Besides, there's more I want to say to Mister Luthor.

"Y'know, I'm curious. WhyLexLuthor?"

Bemused.

"It's.. my name…"

"Your name's Alexander Luthor. The normal abbreviation of Alexander is, 'Alex'. In fact, you're the only Alexander I know of who shortens it to Lex. I was just wondering if there was a reason."

He turns his face back to the direction of travel, and smiles slightly.

"I suppose the snappy answer would be that I'm not merelyALex, but the definitive article. Honestly though, I hadn't thought about it. I suppose I just prefer the sound."

"Hmm. Alright, last question before I go back to boring myself trying to spot nonexistent assassins. You said that Human augmentation could be legally difficult. How about magic?"

"Witchcraft is hardly a replacement for scientific achievement."

"Any sufficiently well understood magicisscience. I was in Atlantis this morning, and there? Everything runs on the stuff. It's taught in schools. It's a resource available to Humanity, and yet, outside Themyscira, it's hardly used anywhere on the surface. Do you know how many fire mages it takes to do the work of a gas fire power plant? Because I don't, and I know that no power company is ever going to investigate it."

He actually stops walking. His gaze is distant.

"LexCorps spends massive amounts on research and development, right? How much would it cost to hire a couple of Atlantian thaumaturgists? Stick a Rune of Cold on an overheating supercomputer. Stick a Sigil of True Sight on a space telescope. Stop treating magic as something separate, something for primitives. Break a paradigm. I checked, andno one'sdoing this stuff. If it works, you could enter entirely new markets with products no existing player could match. If it doesn't, well, that's RD."

"It's.. anintriguingconcept. But, as you say, no one outside Atlantis is doing work on.. thaumaturgy, was it? The scientific study of magic energies? The Atlantian population has traditionally been rather opposed to trade with the surface."

"Yeah, but King Orin's all for it. Not being able to get high purity m-"

"Incoming transmission from Red Arrow."

"I'm sorry Mister Luthor, but I need to take this. You should probably get to the meeting room."

He looks at me full on for a moment, his expression thoughtful.

"Yes… I will."

A slight frown as he turns away, and walks onward with Miss Graves following just behind. I bring my left hand up to the side of my head.

Orange Lantern two eight one four?

Get… Get outside!

Why, what's going on?

Bane's going to try and complete the assassination.

Yeah, that's scary.

So?

He brought trucks carrying anti-ship missiles. Big ones. They could take down the whole building. I'm in pursuit. Get everyone out!

Shit.


	43. page 8

7th September

21:40 GMT 8

HOW THE HELL DID BANE GET MISSILE TRUCKS INTO TAIPEI?!

Aaaaaahhhhh..!

Right. Right. Even if I FTL transfer everyone to ground level -and I've never tried that with groups larger than seven- the missiles and debris from the building could still kill them all, to say nothing of everyone else in the area. Rushing into the room and shouting would probably be a bad idea. Fire alarm?

I look down the corridor.Fire alarm.

The alarms start ringing as IringMiss Graves' phone. There's a click as she answers, and then she doesn't speak. I'm momentarily befuddled.

"Miss Graves, hi, Orange Lantern two eight one four here. We may have a slight missile problem. Could you please evacuate the building as quickly as possible? Thanks ever so."

She rings off. Good. Right. Outside. Outside.Now!

I transfer back to the presentation room, next to the large window. Apparently I don't have any sufficiently unobstructed paths to the outside. Fine.Suction,cut,extract, duck andmove,put it backandreattach. And now I have a unobstructed view of Taipei at night. With this ring I've seen so many amazing things and it's shocking how seldom I'm in the proper mood to appreciate them.

"Ring, find the missiles."

A brief and mindchurningly horrifying moment as the ring tries to show me every rocket based weapon in Asia.

"Taipei.In Taipei."

A more manageable though still migraine inducing number. I swiftlyeliminatefireworks and other nonmilitary rockets as Iflyup above the convention centre. Cull it further. If the Shadows couldn't get a single assassin to Taiwan without using commercial airlines I seriously doubt that they could have smuggled a significant number of missiles in. Picked up locally? I doubt they could have got them like that legally, but, Bane. Hang on. He shrivelled up when I removed the Venom from his body. Would that mean that facial recognition checks no longer pick him up? He could have just flown in.

Did I..? I wrote about him shrivelling up in my mission report, but I don't think I included a picture of his shrunken face. Damn.

Ring, passenger manifests.Search for Bane's current face.

A blur of faces, then a match. Little Bane in a suit. He's been here for four days.

Who's helping him?

Too many possibles. No Santa Priscan passports. Don't worry about it.

Ring, what missiles does Taiwan have that are small enough to be fired from a truck and large enough to threaten a building?

Balls. Yep, that would do it. Supersonic means I've got next to no chance of seeing it and reacting fast enough to do anything clever. Plus, I can't let it fall on anyone.

Any thefts from military facilities?Or factories?

No records of ongoing investigations. But… Oh. I get an image of a naval missile boat in harbour, its crew stabbed to death. I spend a moment scanning the naval base. There's activity from Taiwanese military personnel, but I can see where missile batteries have been wrenched from their moorings. Would they have needed Venom Buster enhancements to do that, or would regular Venom have been enough? If they used the regular stuff they could sneak away afterwards. Nonpermanent versions have their advantages too, I suppose. How many? Looks like ten missiles.

Ring, access military records.Get the serial numbers of those missiles, then find out where they've gone.

"Serial numbers available. Unable to comply with second request."

No nono no no! Not the missiles as well!

Next step. I've practised shielding large areas with Lantern Gardner, but I'm rubbish at it. Can't get emotionally invested enough. But missiles are fairly flimsy, aren't they? Try anyway.

This ismymission,mycause.Shield.

An orange hemiovoid shield forms over the building, extending down around all sides from where I'm floating. Sure, the building's lit up now, but anyone competent enough to steal missiles from the Taiwanese navy and get them into truck launchable condition could probably hit the far side of a building perfectly well without my help.

Ring, infra red scan.Detect launches.Grab me a spy satellite and give me optical scans.Find the missiles!

I feel as the ring acquires eyes in the sky. I becomeawareof patterns of heat and air currents across the city. Is this normal? I haven't tried something quite like this before.

Probable launch detected.

Transfer launch site locationto… The Peace Enforcing Special Service Forces? Really? Fine.Give me positional data.

Warning! Only approximate data available.

It's on the outskirts, but accelerating. I see waste heat, but whatever satellite the ring just grabbed isn't giving a good view.

Warning! Approximate twenty seconds to impact.

Long range constructs I can do. Mostly. Icreatea hemisphere construct under the rocket's approximate location, making sure it keeps pace with where I believe it to be. Crossing the index and middle fingers of my right hand-

Probable launch detected.

Damn it. Iforma network of razorblades above the hemisphere, slicing the missile into pieces. Rocket fuel ignites and the warhead detonates as Iextendthe-

Probable launch detected.

-the hemisphere to contain the force and the shrapnel. The construct holds, just, but I can't keep doing it like that.

Suppress fire, compress remains and place on the ground.

Compliance.

I can't grab the others precisely enough to just point them skywards. Can't just fly to them and transfer them somewhere for the same reason.

Ring, technical schematics.Extend constructs, then sonic scan the missile's probable location to get a precise location.

Compliance.

Two beams of orange light rush away from my in opposite directions.

Locations confirmed. Probable launch detected.

Sonic scalpel to deactivate the detonators.Fix the control surfaces in place, then point the missiles upward.

Compliance. Probable launch detected.

Understood.Repeat-

Probable launch detected. Probable launch detected. Probable launch detected. Probable launch detected.

7th September

21:43 GMT 8

Ring, contact Green two eight one four B.Message: HELP!

Compliance.

Turns out that messages to Green Corps members have a routing systems that requires their sector number and seniority. Alan's off the network, but if I want to talk to Guy I need to give his full identification. He says that the Greenies have a 'favourites' list within their Corps, but mine doesn't seem to have that shortcut. Maybe once I start on my own Corps? Or maybe it requires a Central Power Battery?

HUD.

I see the convention centre, the estimated position andtime to impactof the missiles. Missile four is further away than some of the others, but has been accelerating for longer and will hit first.Extend,sonic scan,scalpel,fix control surfaces,redirect.

The 'time to impact' number associated with the missile jumps up, then changes to 'non-threat' as the ring calculates that it can't hit us.

Accelerated perception.

I'm going to feel this one in the morning. Time appears to slow. The ring detects impulses forming in my mind and triggers the receipt signal without waiting for it to travel anywhere. My mind is more orange light than organic matter at this point, and the change in the missile impact numbers goes from a blur to a slow flipping, like old train station clocks. I tried this twice before and leaving it on is averybad idea. Quite aside from making it hard to focus on any one thing, it also causes vomiting, unconsciousness and ultimately? Neural architecture collapse.

Next missile.Extendis fast.Sonic scanfeels ridiculously slow. I can see the sound waves and their echoes even as I wait for the ring to form a coherent picture from them. Thescalpelforms, and I see the parts of the detonator stress and fail as it damages just enough to make the fused detonation impossible. I have toforcemyself to remain on target as the ring performs the delicate task offixing control surfaceswithout causing fuel detonation, then applying just enough pressure toredirectthe oncoming missile without tearing it apart.

Safe. But I've also made estimates as to how long it's going to take to do all of them. At leasttwo will impactmy shield.

Ring, automate disabling by impact time.Normal perception.

Aaaaahghgh…

I throw up in my mouth as my thoughts crash together in complete confusion for a moment. I fall about four metres before I can coherently want anything again.Mouth clear. Close your eyes tight. Curl up in the air. Everything feels wrong, but that doesn't matter.Focus.

I never liked Missile Command. With my eyes screwed shut to ward off painful sensory input all I can see is the HUD. Maybe it's easier in the abstract? Guy's very big on practical experience, but not very interested in novel approaches.

I feel shitty and it's the fault of the missiles!

One missile goes to non-threat status.

My city!My building!

Another missile off target. Two left.Too slow!

Missile eight ploughs into my shield construct. I can feel the impact, the detonation of the warhead and the ignition of the remaining rocket fuel.

No!You can't have it!

The construct holds, just about. Bits of missile rain down onto the blessedly empty forecourt.

I don't think the shield will stop another.

Probable launch detected.

Oh, come on!

Three seconds on missile nine.

!No can't won't wrongminewrongwrong!

Transition.

I open my eyes.

Did I just-?

It feels likeperceptual accelerationflicks back on as the missile strikes my armour construct right in the chest, slamming me back against the shield around the building. I see the warhead detonate in slow motion as my resistance becomes hard enough to set it off. Distantly, I register the sharp increase in pressure, then the shield behind me buckles and breaks. Time goes back to normal as the force of the detonation send me flying backwards in an uncontrolled hurtle. I see sky, black explosion cloud, wreckage flying away in all directions, building shield faltering and fading away from my impact site as my focus fails. Apainas I pierce the glass frontage in a shower of crystal shards, slamming onto a board room table before bouncing and flipping end over end back onto the table, then the floor at the far end before crashing through the rear wall and coming to rest on the floor of the hallway.

Uuuuhuuuhuhuhhuhgh.

I try to rise. My hand pushes on glass and it slides away. I catch myself.

Uh.

On my hands and knees, I try to push myself up. I slip, and go down on my face. My armour construct shimmers and fails. This situation, this situation. I should be doing-

Wholeness rightly assumed.

Hoooooagh. That's better. The disorientation hasn't quite faded as I push back on my haunches and then stand, steadying myself against the wall. Wooh!

Why are there still people..?

I blink, recognising the South Rhelasian party as they stream into the hallway. The ones at the front of their party stop and stare at me and the wreckage.

This is why peace conferences shouldn't be held at the top of tall buildings.

"Keep going!"

Fucking stupid rubberneckers…

They pick up speed down the corridor towards the exit sign.

Warning! Approximate eight seconds to impact.

The HUD shows the tenth perfectly following the flight path of the ninth. I can actually see it with my unaided eyes as I stagger back towards the breach. No time to take it apart neatly. Uh. I don't think I can focus well enough to block it reliably.

What's left? Redirect? It'll still hit the building. Don't know how many people..?

Wait, could that work?

Ring, can you target the missile visually?

Affirmative.

"Heh.. heh heh."

I run, stumbling then righting myself, towards the hole in the glass.

"Ring,extend environmental shield to the missile.Subspace it."

Slow again. I can watch the missile as it physically enters the building at one and a half times the speed of sound. I see the pale orange glow of my environmental shield extend from my hand and coat the metal surface. I can see the Taiwanese flag and the serial number on the nose. I can see the effect of the air being blasted away by the rocket motor, sending the glass that fell inside the room towards the opening. I think I'm falling forward, hand out towards the approaching missile as it disappears.

I fall against the table, then pull myself upright. Is that it? Please be it.

7th September

21:43 GMT 8

Seat. Seat. I pull out a chair, brush off most of the glass with my right forearm, then collapse into it.

Altering your own brain with a power ring is a bad idea.

I hear a whistle.

"Some party. Hope you ain't been drinking."

I look up.

"I don't think Taiwan celebrates Saint Patrick's Day, but well done for coming prepared."

Lantern Gardner grins as he floats in through the hole in the wall. Used to be, I'd have been scared to be this close to a drop like that. Now it's just, whatever, y'know? He takes a moment to look at me.

"You okay, kid?"

"Used the perception acceleration thing. I'm a bit out of it. Chucked a, ogh…"

A wave of nausea.

"Redirected a bunch of missiles up into the sky. Could you please catch them before they run out of fuel?"

He waves if off.

"No problem. Sit tight and watch while I show you how arealLantern takes care of business."

He floats backwards, waves a mock salute at the Rhelasians in the hallway, then turns and accelerates away. Guess he still hasn't got his head around short ranged FTL transitions. Whatever. This is well within his abilities.

"Ring,remainingcharge?"

"Fifty nine percent remaining."

Fine, that's fine. I've found that sorting my head out from things like this is best achieved with music and food. I'm not risking unfamiliar foreign food in my current state, but the ring's music is still there.

"Ring, play'There she is!', no translation, and let me know if anything dangerous happens."

"Compliance"

I push myself up with the aid of the table as the unintelligible K-Pop -um, R-Pop, I suppose- pours forth. I'm sure that if I actually understood the language I wouldn't like it nearly as much. Then I slide the chair back through the glass shards and turn to go in search of the kitchens. Wasn't there a fad in China for fish and chips a while back? Shouldn't be too hard to…

…

The entire peace conference is behind me. They're gawping. I can just about see Mister Luthor and Miss Graves at the back.

"Ah, I'm going to clean that up."

I point my thumb at the hole.

"Just need a few minutes, and… Hang on.Ring, off!"

The musical accompaniment to a touching Rabbit/Cat love story is silenced. Damn, they all speak the language, don't they? I must look like a prize idiot.

"You… You made the missile disappear?"

"No, General, I just shifted it into the ring's subspace pocket. I'll return it to the Taiwanese coastal defence people once-"

Another wave of nausea, accompanied by dizziness.

"-erum. Excuse me. Once I know things are settled here."

"An impressive technology, is it not?"

Mister Luthor's managed to make his way through the crowd by using Miss Graves as an icebreaker.

"Orange Lantern, I believe I counted two missile impacts? In addition to the one you caught in mid air?"

I nod, falling into parade rest.

"Yes, plus the seven I stopped before they reached the building."

Silence.

"Tenmissiles?"

He doesn't actually sound surprised. He's just asking for confirmation. I see Miss Grant and her cameraman following behind him.

"Yes, Mister Luthor. Ten Taiwanese Brave Wind mark three anti-ship missiles. Stolen from a naval shipyard earlier today, most likely on the orders of a Santa Prisca national by the name of Bane. No idea how he made themtrucklaunchable though. Erm, he's also notorious for his Venom habit and for his ownership of Venom production facilities, so that may explain how Onyx had a dose to use on Mister Huang earlier."

Wait a second. I couldn't scan the missile I now have in subspace. The Taiwanese will have to wait a little while on getting it returned, I need someone to take a look at it.

I really hope the rocket motors haven't incinerated all my stuff.

Prime Minister Tseng and General Li share a look, then step forward towards me. The Prime Minister speaks first.

"You saved all our lives. Thank you."

"Red Arrow was investigating the original attack. If he hadn't warned me this was going to happen, I'm not sure that I'd have been able to stop them. Plus, Lantern.. Green Lantern two eight one four B is collecting the missiles I redirected before they run out of fuel and fall on someone."

I checked, and while Guy's name isn't exactly a secret, knowledge of it isn't that widespread. He said that he didn't really care, but I don't think I should blab.

General Li steps up to me, hand outstretched. Puzzled, I shake it.

"Modest too."

There's a flash. A camera. General Li steps aside, and I shake hands with Prime Minister Tseng. Mister Luthor is third in line, then walks around behind me and puts an arm around my shoulder as we pose for the photographer.

Yep. Definitely an oversight. Next month is definitely too long.

"If there's any way we can repay you..?"

The General again.

"Well, General, this is supposed to be a peace conference. And, if the League of Shadow wants to prevent peace, it seems to me that that's a good reason to go for it."

The two leaders look at each other.

"If it helps inspire confidence, I'd be happy to monitor the military stand down of both sides. It'd be easier for me than for a team of UN inspectors, anyway."

The Prime Minister looks away first.

"Orange Lantern, you must understand, our nations have been at loggerheads since their creation. At this point, reunification is-"

"I never mentioned reunification, sir. And compared to the hostility betweenBritainandFranceover the lastthousandyears, a mere sixty year stand off doesn't mean that much. And look at how well Britain and France get along now."

They avoid eye contact for a moment.

"Hey!"

Guy's back and, oh. He decided to bring the six misdirected missiles with him, rocket motors off and bound in glowing green tethers. Gosh they're big.

"Someone drop these!?"

7th September

23:46 GMT 8

I stand with Guy and Roy at the side of the stage while in the centre Prime Minister Tseng and General Li sign the agreement Mister Luthor and I werefinallyable to talk them into. Guy thought it was funny to prop the missiles themselves against the wall on the other side of the room, and I'm sure they'll make an interesting talking point for the guests once the signing is over. Guy's grinning at the attention and Roy's still glowering at Mister Luthor, who looks mildly pleased from his seat between the General and the Prime Minister. Not really sure how I feel. I mean, he was right; improving the lives of seventy four million people isn't insignificant, but I'm just not reallyfeelingit.

We're keeping an eye out for follow up attacks, but nothing's happening. After handing the missiles off to me Guy went to see what was taking Roy so long. Answer: six heavily armed guys hopped up on Venom. The two of them seem to have bonded over the fight and the really-wanting-to-be-on-the-Justice-League-but-being-unfairly-excluded thing. I hope this publicity helps Guy's cause. Not sure about Roy. Haven't spent enough time with him to say that I know him well enough to assess it, but he really came through here. Though they and the Taiwanese police picked upsomeof Bane's helpers the man himself got away with most of them. As did Onyx.

I see Miss Grant over toward the middle of the room.Wonderwhat she's reporting..?

"-signing a treaty which promises to bring hostilities between these two nations to a permanent end. While both sides have publicly ruled out reunifica-"

"I can't believe we're doing a solid for Lex Luthor."

I shrug.

"Seventy four million people will be happy with the result. I can live with it being seventy four million and one."

"Yeah, and it's not like it's worth the League of Shadows killin' 'emnow, is it? Which mean you and I can go home, while Orange here-"

He slaps me on the back. My body armour prevents me from having to stagger forward.

"-gets to spend the rest of the week playing Risk with real soldiers. Heh, League of Shadows, who even came up with that name?"

It's a little disturbing how often Guy and I are on the same wavelength.

"Ra's is hundreds of years old. It was probably original when he first thought of it."

"But what about-."

Roy stops himself, and lowers his voice.

"What about the other problem?"

Apparently Onyx told him that the League of Shadows had a source inside my team. I think that's pretty unlikely, but I'll talk to Kaldur about it once he gets back.

"Head games, Red. She's just messin' with ya'. Don't worry about it."

"Just in case, I'll talk to Diana about lassoing everyone and asking them. I've been reading up on the Lasso of Truth, and apparently it can compel truth even if you don't know you're lying."

I've sort of been meaning to ask about the possibility of using it to get my name back. Since I know for sure that I don't have any arcane compulsions on me (thanks to Mister Constantine) or telepathic ones (thanks, M'gann) thereshouldn'tbe a significant risk in the attempt. Okay, so when she was checking me out M'gann got it into her head to have a look for my surname herself, and we both got knocked out for four hours and I had to explain to Mister J'onzz what we'd been doing and why exactly we thought that was a good idea -I didn't-, but the theory is sound.

Robin tried guessing it, but apparently 'candles' is too cryptic a clue even for him. I can't think of anything closer that doesn't set it off. It's not like anyone's going to use it, the whole thing's just soannoying.

The General, the Prime Minister and Mister Luthor rise, and step to the side to pose for photos.

"Either of you know how long we're supposed to stay?"

Roy snorts.

"Treaty's signed. Job's done. I'm out of here."

"Ah, come on Red, don't be like that. I'm still on US time! And in the US it's time for lunch. Either a' you been to Taipei before?"

Um, not close to the ground.

"No?"

Roy still doesn't look happy, but he isn't leaving.

"Yes, but I wasn't here for the food."

"I was here in oh five, fighting Evil Star. After I finished kicking his ass, some guys from the local police took me to this stall in the Shihlin Night Market. Does the best Chinese food you ever tasted."

Chinese..?

"Well I… I was planning to get something to eat. R-"

NotRoy.

"-ed Arrow?"

"Do they take credit card?"

Guy frowns.

"'Course they don't. Wait, you seriously don't have any local currency? How long you been here?"

"A few days. I've just been using room service."

I don't have any…What's Taiwan's currency? The New Taiwanese Dollar, or Yuán for short. Wasn't that the currency in Legend of Korra?

"Do you think they'd take gold?"

Guy chuckles.

"Doesn't matter what kind of card it is, they don't have a terminal."

"No, I mean, gold the metal."

Itakea shiny yellow disk out of subspace and hold it up. Not a US mint approved one, this. Double sided orange lantern sigil, and noticeably larger.

"That real?"

"No, Guy, I plan to preserve the karmic balance of the universe by matching the good we've done here with the evil of ripping off a bunch of street traders."

"Probably take it. Where'd you get that?"

"MyCorps doesn't have a rule against its members using their rings for their own ends. Let me go check with Mister Luthor, then lunch, dinner, whatever time of day we're on, is on me."

"You mean you can just…"

Guy seems more than a little peeved.

"Guy,avarice. If I couldn't use it for what I wanted to use it for, I wouldn't be able to use it at all."

"That issuchBS."

"Excuse me?"

We turn as one.

"Cat Grant, GBS News."

The cameraman has his camera in the at rest position.

"Do the three of you have time for an interview? If we're not going to be attacked again, I mean."

The three of us look at each other. Sadly, none of us are telepathic or even know each other that well and so we don't learn anything. I decide to reply.

"We were going to get something to eat. Once this winds down, I mean. Um, do the two of you want to come along? We could talk while we eat?"

She grins.

"That.. that would be great!"

Guy nudges me with his elbow.

Known her for two minutes and you're already asking her to dinner?Real smooth, kid.

What? No, no, that wasn't what I… Uh, never mind.

Exaltations

8th September

13:08 GMT -4

The only good thing about monitoring a phased military stand down in a country on the other side of the planet is that when night falls you can go home and still have some day left. I think I'm going to be abusing the ring's 'don't need to eat or sleep' function. I had thought that I'd be working in an office with representatives of North and South. Instead, I spent most of it in front of a room full of press people, announcing a confirmation of each stage as it happened, as well as fielding their questions. The recording of me listening to 'There she is!' was released on VidULike and has now gone thoroughly viral. There's remixes, mash ups, extended cuts and the last mutation I saw had the music edited out and replaced with a porn sound track which I turn off once I see the Rhelasians. After I watched that, I stopped looking.

There were a few people dressed up as Doki and Nabi outside, and they were eventually joined by people dressed asme.

I have cosplayers now. That's a thing.

Guy turned up for a bit around local midday. Not sure what he was planning, but it gave me a break so I didn't really care. When I came back, he was trying to dodge answering questions on the relationship between our Corps. I feel a bit bad about that, as he's clearly been ordered not to say anything. News programs have been making the whole thing more interesting by splicing in parts of our dinner with Miss Grant. I guess that either she made the recording off the clock and sold it around or GBS sold it on. I think we come across fairly well, and the people running the stall seemed happy enough about it.

Diana's finding the whole thing a little amusing. Her only punishment for me 'coming out' was to make me spend an hour screeningherfan mail so that I'll 'have a better idea of what I've let myself in for'. If I ever see a picture of a fat hairy naked guy again, it'll be too soon.

Haven't heard anything back from the Taiwanese police yet. Bane's employees are in their care. I checked, and they are being treated properly. Well, aside from being made to go through their Venom withdrawal cold turkey, but I can live with that. Mister Huang hasn't woken up yet, and I've set the ring to alert me when he does.

I'm in the base's kitchen. No one else is here, and I want to eat something. Something not Asian. I don'tmindit exactly, but the flavours just clash in my mouth and I haven't worked out the exact mechanics of eating some of it yet. I check, but the last of the chilli is gone from the freezer. What do we have? Nothing that looks appetising. Right, head into Happy Harbour, buy some fresh fish and vegetables, come back. If I stick some potatoes in to roastnow, they should be ready when everything else is. The ring makes peeling easy, and lets me skip the usual pre-boiling and feathering with a burst ofmicrowave radiationand a slight application offorce. Olive oil, heat resistant dish, oven on to gas mark 6, oh. Right. Electric oven. Chart on the wall says gas mark 6 equals 200oC, which translates into Imperial as 392oF. In it goes.

Ring,transitionto the training area.

Compliance.

The scene shifts and oh. Kaldur's back.

"Hi Kaldur, how's…"

I look at the object he's holding in his right hand. He notices what I'm looking at, and raises it slightly.

"Is that.. actually.. Ocean Master's trident?"

"Yes. My king did not want to keep it in Atlantis, and since we were the ones to defeat its former owner…"

That's a little weird.

"You know.. the only one of us who can use it isyou, right? Are you.. actually.. planning to?"

"I have not yet decided. Itisa powerful weapon. I will need to train with it before I make a decision."

"It's not booby trapped or anything, is it?"

"No, it was checked thoroughly, and by mages of proven loyalty. I do not believe that Ocean Master would have considered planning for his own defeat worth while."

"How is..?"

Should I be asking that? I look away for a moment, and Kaldur does likewise.

"He is… There is no immediate danger of Ocean Master dying. King Orin has expressed a desire for a full trial once he is well enough to go through it."

I've still got his hands in subspace. With all the excitement in Asia I completely forgot about it.

"Before I forget, there's a few things I need to talk to you about. Got a moment?"

He nods.

"Alright,first, I've still got Ocean Master's hands."

His eyes widen slightly. I wave my hands in a warding gesture.

"I picked them up after I cut them off, and with one thing and another I haven't got around to returning them. They're perfectly preserved… Ah, would they be able to reattach them?"

He blinks, trying to come to terms with the idea of me carting around a man's hands.

"Possibly. Now that he is out of danger…"

"Who.. would I talk to about that?"

We look at each other for a moment. I'm starting to feel like laughing. He shakes his head slightly.

"I honestly am not sure. I suppose it would be the physician responsible for his care. If you go to the palace and ask for Tuvul'Orr, they should be able to direct you."

"Thank you. I'll do that after lunch. Second thing, ran into Red Arrow yesterday. There's a-"

I wave at the computer console.

"-mission report, you should probably read. In summary, League of Shadows tried to violently break up the Rhelasian peace summit and we stopped them, but… When Red Arrow fought Onyx, she said something about them having a source inside our team. Now, I haven't put anything about that in the report. I've checked our electronic systems, nothing there."

He nods in understanding.

"That would just leave the people."

I shake my head.

"I don't think there's anything to it. I think she was just trying to wind him up, but, your call."

His eyes flick down for a moment.

"I suppose we cannot rule out the possibility."

"I suppose not. Heh, I don't thinkI'dhave believed my backstory if I hadn't lived through it. Alright, you want me to ask Diana to come here and truth lasso us all? I'll go first."

"With all due respect to your sponsor, I think it would be more prudent to investigate quietly. If there is a mole, I have no wish to tip him -or her- off."

"Okay, if that's how you want to do it. But if we're investigating,weneed to get lassoed. I don't doubt your honesty and I don't think that you doubt mine, but if we're being thorough…"

He nods.

"I should be able to get hold of her this evening. Alright, last thing. Has Batman said anything to you about the process for us getting new members?"

"No, he has not. Do you have someone in mind?"

"Yes."

Icallthe grey with orange sigil notebook out of subspace. Turns out that the rocket motor shut down as soon as I put the missile there. Idesire, and the ring generates a copy of my research before returning the original to subspace. I hand the copy to Kaldur.

"This, is Robert Marrack."

8th September

13:12 GMT -4

Kaldur takes the notebook and opens it to the first page, with Robert's picture both in and out of uniform.

"Cornwall Boy?"

"He picked it when he was eight. Last time I talked to him, he said that he's probably going to change it."

"You have already spoken to him?"

"I didn't say that I could offer him anything, just that I'd bring it up. And I needed to find out if he was even interested, and why."

Kaldur scans the first few pages.

"How did you meet?"

"I was looking for potential new members anyway. He was in the right age group. I went to see him for the first time after we got back from Salem."

"It was him who..?"

He moves his right hand to the left side of his chest, and makes a circling motion. I nod.

"Yep. Took him a few seconds to sort it out. Don't know what he'd have been able to do if it was at full strength, but I suppose you could check that."

"I would be interested to meet someone versed in surface world magics."

"Yeah, you'd probably find it disappointing. His family own some books on the subject, but it's, y'know, not exactly rigorously researched. Not by Atlantian standards, I mean."

"What can he do?"

"There's an artefact his family owns. While he's connected to it, he's very strong and very resilient. Not quite at Kon's level, but still pretty impressive. Since he can turn the connectionoff, he's been learning shotokan karate at a local gym. Brown belt at the moment, though I think Black Canary could get him up fairly quickly. He also has an instinct for magic energies, but he hasn't really learned to do much with it yet."

Kaldur smiles faintly.

"It seems that his skill set is fairly similar to my own."

"Huh. Suppose it is. Hadn't really thought about it."

"Why does he want to join us?"

"Apparently his power set runs in his family, in the male line. But, his father isn't really interested in doing much more than looking after their reliquary, and occasionally supporting the local police. Robert wants to go further, thinks he can achieve more with their powers. I mean, lets face it; if you don't know where you need to be or you can't get there, it's very hard to use super strength effectively."

"The League's intelligence resources are extremely useful."

"And the zeta tubes, for members who aren't super fast."

Kaldur closes the book.

"I will read through it, and give you my opinion tomorrow."

"Thank you. If you like the idea, I'll bring it up with Batman."

"Exactly how many other potential recruits have you spoken to?"

"Spoken to? None. There's a few maybes I'm making notes on, but he's the only one who's got to this stage."

Hang on, there was something else…

"Oh! Do you wantthisfor anything?"

Kaldur looks in bemusement at the coconut sized lump of grey plastic that has appeared in my right hand.

"What is it?"

"It's what's left of the rubbish I cleaned out of the North Atlantic Gyre."

He stares at me for a moment.

"You.. 'cleaned out' that North Atlantic Gyre?"

"Well I started.. on the Pacific Rubbish Patch, but when I finished that it occurred to me that there was probably an equivalent area in each major ocean. The one in the North Atlantic didn't take as long as I'd already had loads of practice… Didn't I mention that I was doing that?"

"You did, but I had assumed that it would take a good deal longer."

"At the speed I was going at the start, it would have. But I've got much better at creating filtration constructs and focusing my avarice since then. I mean, there's stillsomeplastic in there, but the place it used to be collecting in is now about as clear as the rest of the ocean."

"The presence of that area of surface-created pollution had been a major cause for concern in Atlantis. Thismayhelp improve relations between Atlantis and the surface world. The use of the ocean as a dumping ground has long been a contentious issue."

"Really? I'd have thought that you were all too deep to be affected."

"No one lives directly under the centre point, but even many miles away it is… itwas, possible to taste the detritus in the water whenever you open your mouth or your gills. You have truly done Atlantis a great service."

"Oh. Well. Um. No problem."

He goes back to looking at the lump.

"It doesn't…Ihave no use for it, but I am sure that the Royal Poseidonis Museum would be interested."

"I'll offer it to them when I drop the hands off."

Oh it felt weird to say that. He starts walking to the habitation area.

"Look, I was going to cook something for lunch. You hungry?"

He stops and thinks for a moment.

"I though that you usually ate your main meal in the evening."

"I've been through so many time zones today that I don't even know what time it is."

"Are you not supposed to be attending school today?"

"There's a funny story there. I never told Diana how old I am. I'm seventeen, and in the British education system compulsory schooling finishes at sixteen, so I don't actually need to attend school unless I plan on having a career in a field that requires a particular qualification, and-"

I hold up the ring.

"-I don't."

"Then I think I will join you, thank you."

He resumes his journey. I'm probably going to be spending a great deal more time with him, now that M'gann and Kon are going to be at school all day. Especially with M'gann's cheerleading practice. Cheerleading. Nothing is more American that celebrating the concept of celebration. Reminding cheering people that they're supposed to cheer. It's like those greeters at WalMart who are there to tell people that they've entered a shop. I mean, for goodness sake, what's the point? Ah, I'm sure that she'll love it, and I try to be polite when she brings it up, but my inner British curmudgeon is demanding that I do the whole thing down whenever possible.

I wonder if there's a New God of Celebration?

Ifocus, and remotely prepare a couple of potatoes for Kaldur and add them to those already in the oven. Remote control for complex tasks is a bad idea, but this is a job the ring could do in my sleep.

I'm glad that the Atlantians will be pleased about all that cleaning work I've been doing. To start with it was a bit of a hassle, but after the first few weeks it became a challenge to overcome, and that made it much easier. I'm doing low Earth orbit next, once the Rhelasian stuff is dealt with.

9th September

17:26 GMT -4

Grimacing, I curl the glowing orange shield in front of us inwards, compressing the exploded remains of the late Roderick Rat into a gooey ball of blood, guts and fur.

"Ring, incinerate."

The ball blackens. Once I'm sure that it's sterile, Icoolit,openthe biological waste bin anddepositit inside. Only then do I risk looking at my fellow researchers.

Wallace is staring wide eyed at the test area.

"So, not.. taking.. the formula.. then."

"Sorry. Looks like two doses isn't healthy."

It's so annoying! We've been able to replicate the Garrick Formula just fine! Sure, as soon as Speedy Gonzales got scared he ran out of the mountain through a wall, but the formula definitely worked! We've even been able to make impure versions which are probably similar to what Wallace and Mister Garrick used originally. But, give a rat a second dose… Rat-a-blew-ey.

"Ring,transfer scans of the last subject to the computer."

"Compliance"

Wallace relaxes enough to sag.

"It's not gunna work, is it?"

Mister Garrick looks up from my research records.

"It was a first attempt, Wally. You shouldn't expect modifying my formula to be thateasy."

"Noo… I know. I just… I justreallyhoped it would be."

He sighs.

"How about we try with one of my blood samples?"

The left side of my mouth tenses slightly, and I make momentary eye contact with Mister Garrick.

"Oh kay…"

Ipickup a test tube containing a small sample of Wallace's blood, andcreatea shield cube around it.

"Recording. Transmuting in three, two,one."

The blood sample was small, but the blast still coats it across an impressive proportion of the shield before it slides down the sides.

"Ohhwah…"

"At least your blood actually reacts to the stuff."

I wave at my own samples, still in a stand on the bench. For reasons I suspect have something to do with alchemy it fails to reactat allto either the Danner Formula or the Garrick Formula. Even when the samples are cloned rather than extracted, Wallace's samples react and mine don't. Mister Garrick found it fascinating. I'm not sure that I'd actually have used either of them even if I could, but the option would have been nice. The third, much darker sample a little further along the stand is proof that Venom Bustercaninteract with me, butthatchange isn't something I'm willing to contemplate.

Combining the two formulae doesn't work. Administered in sequence, the second does nothing. Administered together, then tend to neutralise one another. Again, thatshouldn'thappen. Worse still, I can't remove the effects. I can transmute the formulae from other materials no problem, even if I have to do so in every cell of the body like for the Danner Formula. I can transmute it back fine, until it gets into a living being and goes to work. Transmuting it backthenjust makes it disappear for a few seconds with no noticeable change in the abilities of the user. It then reappears spontaneously.

I'm starting to think that it's just doing it to spite me.

"Ring,transfer scans to the computer, then incinerate and bin."

"Compliance"

Silver lining, I can now induce celerity in any baseline Human, up to and possibly beyond what Mister Allen has. Even a modern lab can't quite manage the reagent purity a power ring can. But we're still no closer to helping Wallace. I bring my right knuckle to my chin.

"The way I see it, there's three basic approaches we could try from here. First, I could try altering the materials already in your body. Second, I try turning you back into a baseline Human, and then we give you a dose. Third, we try getting hold of an alchemist, see if we can get a better understanding of the mechanisms involved."

"But..! Chemistry..!"

"Sorry Wally, but he could be right. I based my original work on Professor Danner's paper on alkaline radicals. Even after we found that it couldn't possibly work by the mechanism which he thought it did, I always assumed that we'd eventually have a scientific explanation for how the formulae worked. It's been seventy years, and if a power ring says it isn't the chemical reactions, well, then there isn't really anywhere to go from there."

"Mister Garrick, are there other people we could talk to about this? Johnny Chambers, or Max Mercury?"

"Afw… Sorry Paul. Johnny's been dead for more than twenty years. Max… You don't find Max, he finds you. I could put the word out, but I haven't seen him for decades."

Mister Constantinemightbe able to get hold of Mister Chambers anyway, but I don't think I'll bring that up unless we'rereallydesperate.

"Probably worth doing. Look, can I check that we're all on the same page about alchemy? Wallace, you tested my blood samples yourself. In simple chemical terms, there's no reason for it not to react."

Wallace looks away, then down, before grudgingly nodding.

"Mister Garrick, about Abednego Danner. I've been trying to look up other chemistry papers from the same period, and I haven't found anything even remotely similar to his work. That's unusual, right? Were any of his contemporaries working on the same thing?"

His gaze drops slightly, he frowns a little, and shakes his head.

"No. I tried investigating the same thing myself in the forties, when I started work onmyformula. His work doesn't have any obvious precursor. Doesn't have that many successors, either, particularly these days. Serious chemists aren't prepared to put time into things thatshouldn'twork. And yeah, that is odd."

"Then there's something black in our lentils."

Both Mister Garrick and Wallace give me a puzzled look.

"It's an Indian saying. Means, someone's playing silly b-. Um. It means that something odd is going on. I mean, hemighthave put random chemicals together and got incredibly lucky, but…"

Wallace perks up.

"But that's really unlikely!"

"Yeah. So how does a professor at the University of Colorado get an education in alchemy in the eighteen nineties?"

Mister Garrick nods, then replies.

"And another question; if he learned it from an existing source, why aren't there other people with the same ability? If it was written down, other people would have read it. If he learned it from a person, what stopped them telling other people?"

"The stuff I got off Alan showed a progression in his research. He definitely improved on what he started with, but either he didn't write down his initial work, the notes didn't survive, or someone gave him a leg up."

Wallace appears to think for a moment, then makes eye contact with me.

"You said that any sufficiently well understood magic is science, right?"

"Yes?"

"Do you know anyone who understands it well enough?"

"I could get an alchemist, but I don't think they'd have the necessary understanding of the theory behind the operating mechanisms to do original work. There might be someone in Atlantis, but I don't think they study regular chemistry down there."

"Then I'll do it."

My eyebrows go up. That, I did not expect.

"You sure? I mean, we haven't eliminated all other avenues..?"

"Yeah, but it's a completely new area for me. It's going to be a while before I know enough to be worth anything. You keep trying ring transmutation, and I'll grab some books off Kaldur."

He shifts uncomfortably on the spot.

"Paul… Jay…. Ineedthis. I don't even care about the speed so much, but I can'tkeep eatingwhole tubs of ice cream 'cause I got the munchies."

Mister Garrick steps toward him, and lays his right hand on Wallace's shoulder.

"It's okay Wally. We'll work this out together."

10th September

09:23 GMT -2

I nod at our host.

"Alright then. Let's see it."

Sephtian told me that he had the first of what he's decided to call 'Spell Eater Amulets' ready when I visited yesterday. Since I had a meeting with Diana planned I said that I couldn't stick around, but that I'd come back today. I then decided to kill two fish with one harpoon, which is why the most out of place Liverpudlian in the world has joined us in Sephtian's workshop.

I still haven't quite worked out why John Constantine agreed to come. Sure, I know he's a sucker for anything to do with magic, and he did hold out until I offered to take him to a couple of Atlantis' arcane book shops.Iwant him because yesterday evening I slowly disassembled the Brave Wind missile, and I've located what I think it the runic inscription on the inside of the outer shell. It's written in electrically conductive polymer, probably with one of those circuit pen things. Sephtian is more likely to be able to analyse it, but Mister Constantine knows more about who might have been able to create it. I also want them to have a look at the Danner and Garrick formula samples I've brought. I know that neither of them are really alchemists, but I really want to give Wallace something to work with.

Sephtian… I can't read his body language. His face is too different and his robes obscure too much of his body. I'dguessthat he's excited, but I'm not really sure.

"The hard part was the maths, really."

He picks up a flat case from the work bench and holds it out towards me. Unlike when we first met, he actually isn't standing on the floor. I'm keeping Mister Constantine and I anchored to it out of habit, but we're surprisingly buoyant. I hadn't even thought about it during my last couple of visits, but we should have negative buoyancy at this depth.

"Calculating the relationships took about four days work. I mean, fourwholedays. I didn'tsleep."

I see a motion in the corner of my eye as Mister Constantine pushes off the counter and half wades/half paddles over to us. Navigating under water when you can't fly and aren't much of a swimmer isn't easy. My environmental shield means that he doesn't have to worry about breathing or getting wet, but as he wasn't happy about me being the one moving him around he's having to struggle a bit.

"Let's see what all the fuss is about, then."

Sephtian reaches his right hand around to the front and flips the catch. One hand over and one hand under, he slowly opens the case.

"Getting help to do the enchanting was easy enough. I even set up a system so that they don't have to be in close physical proximity to the artefact."

The lid passes the forty five degree point, and I get a look at the product of his labours. This prototype is a disk of black granite with a hole in the centre and tiny gold wires crisscrossing the surface. They actually run through the granite as well, something that is basically impossible to achieve without a power ring. Granite is pretty common in amulets of this type because it's fairly mystically inert. The hole is for the thong which will allow it to be worn as a necklace without risking disruption to the binding wires.

The thong itself is in the case next to the disk. It isn't made from leather -they couldn't work that down here even if they could get it- but from enchanted whale sinew. Thanks to Atlantian efforts -diplomacy in modern times, fishing boat hunting a few generations ago- fish and aquatic mammal stocks in this parallel are much higher than at home. But this probably wasn't taken from an actual whale but rather created by a professional biomancer.

I only found out they existed yesterday, when Tuvul'Orr explained the process for reattaching Ocean Master's hands. Recreating the whole hands would have been immensely difficult, but according to him reattaching them was day surgery. If the surface world only gets one thing in trade with Atlantis it has to be the ability to regrow simple body tissues. I mean, I used to work in umbilical cord blood storage, and I know that even the most generous estimates of future stem cell regeneration techniques are nothing like what Atlantis can already do.

"Well?"

Sephtian's lower body is in constant motion, treading water. Or maybe that's just how he shows excitement? He sounds breathless, but I'm not sure how much of that is being translated by the ring. Would I be able to hear him at all without it?

"It doesn't look any different to me."

"Of course it doesn't!Youcertainly can't see magic."

Another advantage to having Mister Constantine here is that he can tell me if this is some sort of weirdly complex conjob. I extend my right hand and pick it up. It dries as it passes through my environmental shield. I can't feel the wires, and the stone is smooth and cool to the touch.

"Lets give it a try then."

Isubspacemy armour, replacing it with my vest and jeans. I reach up with my left hand and remove my existing ward, putting it in the case in place of its successor. I don't..feelany different.

"No, I suppose that's not a fair test."

I put the new ward back in the case as well, taking hold of the lower flap with my left and with my right hand hovering just above the Spell Eater.

"Sephtian, that scanning spell you used on me when we first met. Cast it, and don't look at my hand."

He nods once, releases his hold on the case and pulls his hands into his chest. He's much gentler now than he was the first time, but it still feels like I've got some sort of burrowing insects living in my hypodermis. Keeping eye contact with him, I drop my hand onto the new ward. Half a second later the feeling is gone, and Sephtian breaths out heavily and blinks rapidly. He rubs his hands together as if he were washing them.

"It is not a comfortable feeling, to be casting at the Spell Eater. Once it gets going, it feels like it could pull the spirit out of you."

"Itcan't, right?"

"Nnnnnnnot out of a normal person. Perhaps… Perhaps out of some sort of elemental? I'm not sure."

I turn to Mister Constantine. He's pulled out a cigarette, and is in the process of lighting it. He started nagging me about that during our mid-Atlantic descent, until I realised that the environmental shield would probably keep them dry. As long as it's in close proximity to him anyway. Atlantians don't smoke, obviously. I've alreadytoldthe ring to unmake the smoke and ash.

"Bit beyond me, mate, to be honest. I mean, I recognise the runes and that. The theory bits sound right, but…"

He shrugs. I suppose he's got a point.

"Fair enough. Another practical test then."

I pull out the Spell Eater and the thong. I thread the thong around and through it, and put it around my neck. Oh, hang on, should check.

"Does it have to be in contact with my skin? Or can I wear it over clothes.. or what?"

"It needs to be in close physical proximity. Skin contact is best, but a centimetre or so shouldn't matter too much."

"Rightyoh. How about the other ward?"

"That thing? It would fail after a few minutes if you tried wearing them together."

"Alright. Mister Constantine, present for you."

I hand him the other ward and he slips it into his coat pocket as I put the Spell Eater down my chest under my vest, andkeepit there. Then I take a couple of steps away and take a solid stance.

"Hit me with something."

He reaches up to his mouth with his left hand and pulls out his cigarette, holding it out to the side slightly. He then meets my eyes, his own narrowed slightly, a thin smile on his lips. He holds this position for about six seconds.

"Why don't you give me your power ring?"

I blink.

"Um, no?"

He winces, squeezing his eyes shut and hurriedly jamming his cigarette back into his mouth, sucking on it.

"Yep, it's working. And I'm not testing it again. Feeling like your soul's gettin' sucked out loses its novelty value after a while."

Sephtian either exhales heavily, or farts. Or does he have flotation bladders? He's looking at Mister Constantine in alarm.

"Please avoid using that sort of magic while in my company. Atlantian law takes mental influence spells rather seriously."

I smile.

"Wouldn't be much use to me if it only worked onlegalmagics, would it? Alright, I'll take it. How long will it take you to complete the order?"

"I've.. modified the design a little, now that I've had a chance to see it working. The next model should be about a hundred andtwenty percentmore effective. If you can fabricate.. you said you wanted twenty? If you fabricate themnow, we should have completed the order within fifty days."

I frown.

"That's longer than it took to make this one."

"I did not fully appreciate how small your ring can make things. The next generation will not be limited by my preconceptions, but only by my knowledge and ability. The individual enchantments.. there will bemanymore of them. It will probably not be quite that long, now that everyone knows what they are doing. But I'd rather overestimate than disappoint you."

I nod.

"Sounds good."

10th September

09:27 GMT -2

Iconveymyself over to the counter.

"Now, payment. You said you wanted other metal samples?"

He makes a gesture with both arms, striking out to the sides. It's a bit like a shrug, but I'm really not sure that it means the same thing.

"Yes! So many things become possible with complete purity! And… since most of the enchanting work here doesn't actually require my personal oversight…"

I nod.

"Right. Wasn't sure exactly what you wanted, but…"

The Atlantian language is pretty similar to ancient Greek dialects. Diana told me that she and King Orin can understand each other fairly well without translation, though the idioms don't work at all. I thought it best to write the name of each metal on each ingot, and nearly forgot that Sephtian almost certainly doesn't speak or read English. I asked Diana about it, and it turns out that Themysciran Greek doesn't have names for a number of the elements in the periodic table.Theycan refine to complete purity, but haven't ever done much work with elements they can't mine themselves.

"Tin,Gold,Silver,Copper,Aluminium,Titanium,Lead,Zinc,Tungsten,NickelandCobalt. Are you sure it's alright to just put them here? Most of these react with sea water."

He waves a dismissal with his right hand.

"My workshop is enchanted to prevent certain types of chemical reaction. I realise, in terms of chemistry, Atlantis is a long way behind the suuuurface..?"

The chemistry textbooks with pages made of polymer substratematerialisenext to the ingots. Nothing amazing by surface standards. I really don't know what sort of level of chemistry education Sephtian has. Since everything they do down here involves the manipulation of materials by magic, I suppose that conventional reactions are only relevant if they want to prevent a particular reaction happening. But Sephtian clearly knows that there's something out there that hedoesn'tknow, so he must know something, right? Just in case, I got a range from real beginner stuff covering appearance and basic uses, through secondary school textbooks on to more specialised guides to industrial processes. I wasn't completely happy with some of the translations, but I'm sure that he'll manage. And if the way he's picking them up in turn and caressing them, he's happy with them.

"Um, Mister Constantine-"

"Is calling me 'John' against the rules or something?"

"… No. I can call you 'John' if you prefer? I didn't want to presume."

"Think so, mate. Not used to posh people being polite to me. Messes up my world view."

"Um, I'm not posh. I'm middle class. I mean, my parents are. Well, my paternal grandparents were upper middle class, but they went down a level after the Second World War. I suppose.. don't know…howthe class system deals with superheroes."

He chuckles.

"What?"

He shakes his head.

"Don't worry about it, mate."

"Er, okay. Would you mind taking a look atthis?"

I take the section of missile epidermis out of subspace,creatinga pocket of air around it and positioning it so that the sigil is toward John. He leans towards it slightly, peering at the design.

"Any ideas?"

"Yeah. Used something like it myself a few times. It's a ward. Supposed to prevent someone scrying for whatever you put it on. You know what the symbol's made of?"

"A conductive polymer, probably drawn on with a circuit pen."

"Hm. Generally stick to chalk, myself."

"But apparently other things work. Saw a television series once where a man held off a demon by standing in a magic circle made of light. Would that actually work?"

He tilts his head to the side for a moment.

"Maybe, if the guy inside knew his business. Be a stupid way to die if the demon was bright enough to cut the power."

"Let me see that."

Sephtian still has 'Modern Industrial Chemistry' clasped to his chest like a teddy.

"Mm, yes, scrying ward. Weak, though. I doubt it would hold off a skilled practitioner."

"Not on its own, but if you combine it with a few things-"

"Yes, but there's nothing else here."

He turns back to me.

"Where did you get this?"

"Taiwanese Brave Wind anti-ship missile."

A moment of recognition from John.

"Oh, that wasyou. Should'a realised."

Sephtian looks from me to him and then back again.

"Ah..?"

"Three days ago I took part in preventing a peace conference from being destroyed bythese."

I create a life sized missile construct.

"I couldn't scan them with the ring for some reason, and since I still can't scan this plate, I'm going to assume that the scry ward is interfering with it."

Sephtian blinks.

"Could do. I'm surprised that it's still working. I.. was assuming that your ring didn't use magic?"

"Technology this advanced, there isn't much of a distinction. I don't suppose there's an easy way around it, is there?"

"Oh, any sort of scrying focus would probably bypass it. Or having more than one person scry at the same time. I don't think… Hm. Mister Constantine?"

"Yeah, I think you're right there. Don't suppose there's any chance the Taiwanese put it there themselves?"

"I'll ask, but I doubt it. A surprisingly large number of people have found a way to evade my ring scans lately. Are you saying that having several people scan it at the same time would get around it?"

John and Sephtian look at each other for a moment, then Sephtian nods.

"Yes, if a single example of this was the only protection they had. This-"

He waves a hand at it.

"-is poor workmanship. Really, I'm surprised that the binding has held the spell for as long as it has."

"The missile went from the launch site to the target in less than a minute. I starting scanning a little before they launched, but not by much."

"Oh, it would easily work forthatlong. But if people are evading your detection for a sustained period of time, I would assume that they have access to something better."

"Any chance you could come up with a way to counter it?"

"For a magic user? Certainly. For you? Mmmmmno."

"Right. I suppose that would have been too easy. Thanks for your help. If you could show me your revised designs?"

10th September

10:22 GMT -2

I hadn't thought about it, but even though the inhabited parts of Atlantis only cover a fairly small area of the sunken continent they aren't restricted in how high they can go. There's still a down -usually- but if you step out of a fiftieth story window here you just stay there rather than falling as you would on the surface. Plus, their use of bioluminescence means than sunlight isn't an issue. So, they usually build up rather than out, and they don't dig down. Oh, they buildfoundations, but Sephtian found the idea of a basement quite strange. Buildings in Shayeris are often a sort of mushroom shape, while in Poseidonis they seem to favour tall thin towers with the apartments projecting out from the side like boils. At ocean floor level the feel of being in ancient Greece is still pretty strong, though I doubt these buildings actually predate the sinking.

I asked about the Formulae, and it was all I could do to stop myself laughing when Sephtian actually said 'Oceanus' breath, Orange Lantern. I'm an artificer, not an alchemist.' Clearly he's never seen Star Trek, and I don't think I'd be able to explain it to him. So, after picking up a couple of what Sephtian called 'apprentice level' books for John we headed off to Poseidonis. Didn't get around to seeing much of the interior of the Conservatory of Sorcery last time I was here, but there certainly weren't all these guards. Most of them are Sharkmen… um, Sharkfolk? How would I tell..? No, not thinking about it. There are a few fish-tailed types as well, but I'm not seeing any Purebloods.

The outer parts of theConservatoryare clearly in the Greek style, with a large and quite out of place Atlantian tower in the centre of the complex. Interestingly, no effort appears to be being made to keep down the level of aquatic plants. I don'tthinkthat they're part of a garden, but maybe they use them for reagents? Mindful of what happened during my first visit to Atlantis, I bring myself and John to ground level at the edge of the plateau on which the Conservatory sits, and make sure that the guards have seen us before starting toward the main entrance. There are four of them on duty -three Sharks and a Triton- and the Triton nods at two of them who start swimming in our direction.

"You sure about this, mate?"

"They're probably from Nanauve. Like I said, King Orin's had to temporarily replace a large chunk of the local garrison with the Sharks. Don't worry, they'll behave themselves."

He gives me a sceptical look, and lights a new cigarette. I wave my index finger in the Shark's direction.

"Come on."

I walk forward to meet them, and John follows me. Once we get to within easy speaking distance the Sharks stop in the water. Atlantian soldiers usually carry a type of arcane sonic pulse weapon, but the Sharks have theirs stowed in favour of a short straight sword and a shield. Some of the ones I saw yesterday were in Nanauvian red and blue, but the armour these wear is Poseidonian turquoise.

"Warning: arcane sigil detected."

John looks at me in surprise.

"You ring can talk?"

"Hm? Yes?"

"Exactly how in-"

"Identify yourselves."

The Sharks' posture doesn't suggest that they're particularly worried about us, but I notice that the two still on the steps have drawn their ranged weapons. They aren't pointing them at us just yet, but they're being cautious.

"I am Orange Lantern two eight one four. I was hoping that I could use the library, maybe book a consultation with one of the Conservatory's scholars?"

They look at me for a moment. Then the one on the left tilts his head slightly forward.

"Aren't you the guy who caught Ocean Master?"

"I was part of the group, yes."

The one on the right shows an interest. Their voices remind me of those belonging to the Krogan.

"Did you really cut his hands off?"

"Um, yes?"

"What did they taste like?"

I blink. Need to research Atlantian rules of engagement.

"I didn't eat them. I didn't know where they'dbeen."

That gets a laugh from both of them. The one on the left nods.

"The Queen put you on the accepted visitors list. You're fine to go in. Who's your friend?"

"This is John Constantine. He's a… A visiting scholar, from the surface."

Right Shark looks puzzled.

"I didn't think the surface world had magicians."

He looks at them both in turn, inhaling deeply through his cigarette. Then he removes it and breathes out a cloud of smoke, which goes.. through.. the environmental shield? How did..? It wafts toward the guards, and as it reaches them it seems to shift its shape. I can't see what they're seeing, but both of them instinctively crouch and raise their shields as it passes through them and then dissolves into the water behind them.

"John!"

He returns the cigarette to his mouth with a smug grin. This could be very bad.

The Shark on the right turns his head away from us, a difficult feat for someone with no apparent neck.

"A phantasm. I can't believe you fooled us with a phantasm. Could you, like, not tell anyone that happened?"

"Don't worry, mate. Lips are sealed."

Left Shark wiggles his head.

"Uh. Guess you're okay, then. Come on."

They swim in a loop around us, dropping down to our level at our sides as an escort. I start walking again. Right Shark is now next to me, and left Shark is next to John.

"So, are you enjoying working in Poseidonis?"

He exhales sharply.

"Iwasliking it just fine, 'till they stuck us guarding-."

"Alki!"

Left Shark tries to shut Right Shark -Alki, I suppose- down.

"What, Ceyx? You really like him so much?"

Ceyx rotates his head to the left for the moment.

"Thought not. Only good thing about having two kings is it doesn't matter too much if one of them's a-"

"Report!"

The Triton on the steps has stowed his ranged weapon -note to self, find out what those are supposed to be called- and has swum down to meet us. Our escort simultaneously bang their shields with the butt of their swords. Ceyx swims to the fore.

"Sminias. Orange Lantern and guest. They want to use the library."

"Have you confirmed his identity?"

Alki looks at me for a moment, then back to his superior.

"He's glowing orange."

I hold out my left palm, andprojecta large orange sigil out in front of me. Sminias looks at it, then nods.

"Orange Lantern, welcome. All Atlantis owes you a debt for defeating Ocean Master. I'll let the Queen know that you're here."

"Oh, there's no need to disturb her. I'm not doing anything Ineedto talk to her about."

"She's said that she wants to speak to you anyway. Ceyx, Alkiphron, escort them in to the library."

10th September

10:35 GMT -2

"This is my kind of library."

"Because it's full of arcane lore?"

"No. Because it doesn't have a 'no smoking' sign."

I was expecting something like the library at the University of Sussex. Central light well, rows of bookshelves, a few desks around the edge and large windows. What we've got is a series of rooms with fairly small areas of floor space. Around the edge of each are scroll racks, rising to the ceiling. The rooms are about ten metres tall, so that's a lot of scrolls and I have no idea what organisational system they use. Ceyx and Alkiphron have no idea either. I've extended the ring's translation ability to John, but after his first attempt to swim up to the top of a scroll rack while wearing a trenchcoat I suggested that he stick to the bottom scrolls. He's about as athletic as I was before getting the ring.

I'm not much use either. We're looking for stuff on alchemy, thaumaturgy and soul structure, and unless one of those words was specifically mentioned I could go right past the scroll we want without realising it. I've been trying to read up on the subject of magic generally, but this is probably the greatest store of magic learning on the planet. I'm as far out of my depth metaphorically as I am physically. I can't even scan for it: unsurprisingly, the whole place is warded against scrying. And the light comes from the floor and ceiling equally. Twice now I've found myself getting confused about which way 'up' is.

John found it a bit amusing that I'd volunteer for the same sort of soul carving that he used onChantinellewhen I'm the one person on the planet that hecan'tdo it to. I'd need to have a soul first. Can't believe I didn't spot that particular rub sooner. Plus, I do kind of want one anyway. Bargain basement immortality might not be much, but it would still be an improvement on my current position. John said that he'd be happy to help, as he's curious what happens when you give a soul to something that isn't supposed to have one. Another poke in the eye to the powers that be, I suppose.

I slip a scroll on the spiritual resonances of amphibians back into the rack.

"It's no good, John. We need a librarian."

John rotates the scroll he's holding through ninety degrees and peers at it, before giving up and rolling it back up.

"Think you're right there, mate. Ceyx, you know where the front desk is?"

Ceyx nods, and takes the opening to the north. That's something it took me a while to pick up but now I can's stop seeing: no doors. There were these sort of screen shutter things in Kaldur's family home, but there aren't any external doors anywhere I've seen, including this school. We go through five rooms similar to the ones which we've already passed before coming to a large room with rows of desks and -Hallelujah!- a librarian station. This place needs a waterproof computerised catalogue. I notice several students reading things at the desks, including Garth and Tula. She waves at me, and Garth turns around to look at who it is she's spotted. Since no librarian is in evidence, might as well say 'hello'. First though, the escort.

"Ceyx, Alkiphron, thank you for bringing us, but I think we can manage from here."

Ceyx looks at me, then around the room. Did I mishear earlier? Are we required to have an escort?

"Alright. If you say so."

Alkiphron nods.

"We were just using this as an excuse to skive off, really."

Ceyx sags as his colleague continues.

"With Ocean Master gone and Black Manta having lost most of his men in that last attack, I don't even know why we're here. And hanging around inside beats hanging around outside."

Ceyx shoves him toward the door.

"Get moving."

As they reach the exit Alkiphron turns back to us.

"Careful now: some of these scrolls can be vicious. And none of them have hands! Heheheh!"

Ceyx takes hold of his dorsal fin and uses it to shove him forwards.

"Ow! What'd'you do that for?"

John takes a drag on his cigarette before taking it out of his mouth with his left hand and pointing it at our retreating guides.

"Don't know about you, but I'm a lot less scared of Sharks than I used to be."

I nod, then beckon him.

"Come on, I want to introduce you to some people."

I lead him over to where Tula and Garth are sitting. Garth, who's closest to us, rises.

"Garth, Tula, nice to see you again."

Garth nods.

"Orange Lantern. Who's your friend?"

"This is John Constantine. He's a magician from my home country. Um, the equivalent of my home country in this parallel. We're trying to get some information, but it's a bit of a maze here…"

Tula pricks up her ears at 'magician'.

"Oh! Well, we can show you around. What are you looking for?"

I look at John. Come on, magic talk time. He rubs his chin with his free hand.

"Some sort of introductory guide to Atlantian alchemical practice would be nice. And anything you're got on thaumaturgical studies of the soul, how it can be damaged and repaired."

Garth frowns at the second one.

"That's a bit-"

"You're trying to help Paul get a soul? Is that even possible?"

"Dunno 'till we try, do we?"

He looks at me speculatively.

"Not sure you were supposed to tell me his name, though."

Her face falls. I wave my right hand.

"Don't worry about it. I don't have a civilian identity to protect.Probablywant to be more careful with the others, though."

"I'm so sorry. Secret identities aren't something that exist in Atlantis."

She rises out of her chair.

"I'll take you to the scrolls you-"

"Actually."

Garth interrupts her.

"Why don't you take John Constantine to the alchemy section, and I'll take Orange Lantern to the restricted section. No offense-"

He looks at John.

"-but some of the spells there are really dangerous, and we don't know you at all."

Makes sense, I suppose. John nods.

"Alright. Lead the way, love."

Tula swims toward the exit on the left and John wades after her, thin orange line still connecting us. As they leave the room I hear her say:

"Why do you have a burning stick in your mouth?"

I turn to Garth. He appears to be studying me, and I have a momentary urge to check if there's something on my face.

"This way."

He rises up into the middle of the room, and leaves through an exit in the roof I didn't even see until just now. Ifollow.

10th September

10:41 GMT -2

Garth doesn't seem to appreciate exactly how hard navigating around Atlantian buildings is for someone who isn't used to it. He keeps shooting ahead, and it's getting a bit irritating.

"Hey, Garth!"

He stops at the entrance to the next room.

"How's the background checking on the Ocean Master's appointees going?"

His face hardens, and he looks away.

"Mine was finished yesterday."

What?

"Wait, what?"

He looks back at me.

"Prince Orm was King Orin's regent. He didn't just approve palace appointments for his own agents, his name is on nearly everything. Including the royal scholarship grants that make it possible for Tula and I to study here."

"Oh. I'd.. I'd assumed that Queen Mera would be responsible for that sort of thing."

He shakes his head.

"In exchange for the scholarship, we agree to spend several years in the military as battle mages. Since the military's involved, it has to be approved by the royal court. I had thought that I'd got approval from the senate committee, or the military education board. But apparently Prince Orm signed it himself, and, since I'm a Pureblood…"

I feel like I should be apologising.

"You know.. they have to be thorough, right? I'm sure no one actually thought that you'd-"

"Itfeltlike they did."

His face relaxes a little, and he turns back to the exit.

"Come on."

One more east, then up two and we arrive in a larger room. It's much shorter than the other two, and there's a couple of attentive looking Shark guards between what appears to be a reception area and another room which holds the familiar scroll racks. The short passageway between them is covered in gold symbols, presumably being used to bind protective spells in place.

Ring, optical scan and identify when able.

Compliance.

Garth swims ahead to speak to the guards.

"Garth of Poseidonis and Orange Lantern.. two eight one four, to access the restricted section."

The guard on the left nods, then pulls two small amulets off his belt and hands them over. Imoveup to him, and he hands one over.

"You'll need this to go inside"

"Um, is it safe for me to wear this?"

He thinks about it for a moment.

"It should be. It doesn't do anything to you, it just stops the defensive spells inside registering you as a threat."

Alright then. I nod. There doesn't seem to be any sort of fastener, so I try just pressing it against the strap of my vest. Nothing. Um. Trouser pocket, that works. Garth watches me put it away, then walks through the passage to the room with the scroll racks. I walk after him.

"How basic do you want?"

I stop at the entrance to the passage, and run a sceptical eye over the runes. Ishouldbe safe, right?

"I'm not sure. John can already-"

I take a step into the passageway, and a piercing shriek nearlydeafensme before I ring up some ear protection. Garth stares at me in confusion for a moment, then everything goes white and cold. Ice! The water's turned to ice!

Ring, armour, construct armour, break the ice!

Shards of white explode away from me as the water churns. A portcullis has dropped over the far end and Garth's turns, staring in astonishment. Lightning bolts spend themselves against my armour. Iturn, and there's another portcullis through which a couple of hostile looking Sharks are staring at me.

The lightning cuts off, to be replaced by force beams like those used by Atlantian soldiers. Iadda dome shield. What's going on! No, can't worry about it. Confusion is a distraction. Ineedto not be here.

"Ring, vacuum tube transition!"

After last time, when the ring told me that I couldn't FTL under water, I came up with a way around the restriction. By forcing water away from a particular area, I can create a zone where FTL travel is possible. I need an area for re-emergence as well. The whole thing's a bit avarice intensive, but with the noise and the surprise violenceI have no problem wanting OUT enough.

A narrow orange beams projects from my dome shield and through the portcullis on the exit side of the passageway. The standard dislocation, and the vacuum around me collapses. I'm standing facing the backs of the guards, who whirl around to confront me.

"Come on! You gave me the entry pass!"

They take no notice, raising their shields and spreading out in an attempt to become harder to hit. The Atlantian military really needs better briefing on Lantern capacities.

Scan, Pithing Needles.

Lines of orange extend from my armour chest plate, and curl around the Sharks. Both strike home next to the base of their dorsal fins, but for some reason there's a moment of delay while the Sharks are still able to react. Left Shark is brought to a dead stop as the construct takes effect, but Right Shark is a bit faster off the mark and brings his sword around, severing the construct.Huh?

Warning: slicing sigil detected. Warning: fortification sigil detected.

Ijerkthe other tether aside as he slashes at it. Realising that he isn't going to free his colleague, he pulls his strike and surges forward toward me. Isendchains in four directions around him and try to grab him from behind. He swirls in the water and slashes at them, cutting the one heading for his sword arm and blocking another with his shield. I get both his legs, though, and drag him back. He tries to bend to cut those too, but his body isn't really designed to move in that way. Plus, he's assumed that the constructs he cut are no longer a threat, when in reality I just lost control of the bit which was severed.

Instead, theybecomePithing Needles and strike the armour on his now exposed back. A moment of resistance, then he goes still.

Construct resistant armour? Wonder if I can get Sephtian to do that to mine? Now, how to Iturn offthe alarm? Imoveto the portcullis,subspacingthe Shark's swords and shields as I pass. The inside of the passageway seems to have calmed down. At the other end, Garth looks like he's trying to cut through the portcullis, but stops when he sees me. I throw my hands up in the air.

"What just happened!?"

"What did you do to the guards!?"

"What? Oh, just paralysed them, they'll be fine. How do we turn the alarm off?"

He stares at me for a moment.

"Uh, I'm not sure. I think the Queen has to-"

A flare of light behind me. Iturn, and a vast lilac manta fills my vision. Star Sapphire? The back wall is.. gone. There's a distortion around the place it used to be, and the side wall glows where the join should be. I crouch, raising aorange sigil emblazoned tower shieldin my defence. Behind the manta I see more Sharks, a couple of Tritons and… Oh. Hi Queen Mera.


	44. Page 16

5th November  
21:16 GMT -2

"This is a lot more boring than I thought it would be. I thought this man was supposed to be a wizard?"

We're in Septian's workshop. Robert looks both impressed and nervous about being somewhere very few surface dwellers ever get to go. Gemma seems less impressed. Has John made her jaded, or has she built up unrealistic expectations based on what she _thinks_ he does?

"Sorry about that, Miss Masters. It looks a lot prettier from the outside but we're in a bit of a hurry here. If you can get your parents to agree to it I don't mind bringing you back here in the future."

The idea of getting her taught magic in a safe environment has a certain allure, though I'll have some way to go before her parents will agree to that. Now, where would Sephtian have left the other Spell Eaters? I really hope he's doing them one at a time. If he's doing the first stage of the whole lot before moving on we could be in a great deal of trouble. Workroom, workroom. He's remodelled quite a bit since I was last here. Ah! There they are! I don't want to use FTL with passengers underwater if I can help it, so I start moving in the direction of the double doors leading to the workroom.

Bubbles trailing from his feet and hands, Robert comes up alongside me. "So, we're not picking anyone else up from Britain?"

"I picked you because we need all the magic users we can get, and with you being a thaumovore that's doubly true for you. Why, did you have someone in mind?"

"I dunno. Squire? Rush Hour three? I think they'd be young enough."

It's funny. Despite knowing I'm under water and being well used to flying I still have a momentary impulse to walk along the rows of work benches rather than just fly over them. "They are, but they're not essential. You are. I might end up getting them later, depending on how things go." I head towards the small transparent dome on a small table near the ring shaped desk in the room's centre. It's a minor shield spell, probably powered by the pressure of the water around it. My hands pass through with no resistance and I take the three _hopefully_ complete Spell Eaters therein. It shuts down as they pass through it. No good way to test them as I don't want Robert wasting his acquired charge. Actually, having him drain some non-essential stuff around here might not be a bad id-. No. Don't mess around with things you don't understand unless you have to. Feeding him on that sword Artemis and Zatanna got off that William Hayes loony is a much better option.

"What's this place for?" Gemma's swum in behind us. Do I need anything else from here? Don't think so. I was going to ask him to design some improved binding chains, but he doesn't really have the production capacity. The way things are going he's going to need up to upscale massively to meet my demand.

"Making these." I hold the amulets up. "They don't quite make the wearer magic proof, but they're not far off." They're actually even better than the one I'm wearing, but since I'm no longer exceptionally vulnerable it doesn't make much sense for me to prioritise myself for one. Depending on who we're up against they should probably go to the melee fighters. "The arrangement on the ceiling allows everyone working at the benches to channel their efforts into an object at the centre while Septian makes sure all the different bits of the spell integrate properly. This is a-" I swing my arms to encompass the room. "-snapshot of the future of industrial arcane technology."

"Feels weird." "Feels weird."

Robert and Gemma jerk their heads to look at each other as they make the comment at the same time. They're both sensitive to magic and they're not used to this type. Makes sense it would throw them off a little. I swim over to Robert and pull Gemma to us with the ring. "Robin, I'm heading back to the cave now. All mask-wearers got their masks on?"

"I'm the only one in the cave with a secret identity. We're good."

The tubular shape of the zeta tube construct surrounds us. "Three to the cave, training room entrance."

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, B zero six, Cornwall Boy, A one zero, Gemma Masters, A one one."

I stride out while the other two take a moment to get their bearings. What can I give Gemma to do to keep her out of the way? Ah, that might work. Teekl, please come to the training room. Someone wants to meet you.

Teekl come when Teekl feel like it.

I get an impression of her moving nonetheless. Robin's standing in the middle of the room surrounded by holographic screens. "Hey Oh El."

"_Oh my God you're Robin_." Gemma's hands go over her mouth as she tries to contain her excitement.

"The one and only." He gives her a wave and a smile. "And you're Gemma Masters."

"Yes! How did you- Oh, right, hah! The computer just said it."

"Uh, Oh El..?"

"She's John Constantine's niece, and represents one hundred percent of the children I know who aren't superheroes. I want her somewhere safe."

"Does magic run in her family too?"

"Yes, but not in a good way. I'd rather she not be involved in... Where's Zatanna gone?"

"Kaldur brought his whole class. They're in the hangar, because-"

"Can't get out of the water, right. You got anything?"

He shakes his head. "Nothing on satellite, and with the news channels down there's no good eye witness reports of _anything_that could explain this."

"Um." We both look at Robert, who shrinks slightly. "Sorry. Is there.. like.. something I should be doing?"

"Cornwall here can absorb other people's magic to power his own."

"That wasn't in the file you gave Batman."

"We just found out. Know anything about scrying or divination?"

"Little bit. Some geomantic stuff. I mean, if you've got people working on it already-."

Robin shrugs. "Every little helps. Oh El-."

"Yeah. Come with me. I'll show you down. Robin, if you can't find anything could you please keep an eye on Liverpool? We ran into a mob of Praexis Demons and I want to make sure there isn't some apprentice summoner going crazy down there."

"Sure, but that wasn't what I was going to ask. You were in Gotham when this started."

Oh. "Yeah."

"How.. bad was it?"

"I was on the Vincefinkel Bridge. Twenty nine dead and.. lots of injuries." I close my eyes for a moment, picturing it. "I stopped the situation there getting worse, but if you extend those sort of figures across the city... Or the world..."

He nods, visibly shaken.

"Add in the risks of exposure and starvation... A load of healthy children getting scared isn't the problem, we're going to need paramedics and primary caregivers back in the next few hours or things are going to get even nastier."

**5th November  
20:24 GMT -3**

"And this is the hangar."

"Whow." Robert looks appropriately awestruck as he takes in the large cavern, before pointing hesitantly at the bioship. "Is that.. an alien spaceship?"

"Yes. It belongs to Miss Martian. Very useful. This way please?" I lead the way to the right, down the steps to the open area where I see that the others have gathered. M'gann, Kon, Artemis and Wallace are still out rounding up unattended small children around Happy Harbour. Low traffic density plus low speed limits have apparently kept the casualty count down locally and with the best will in the world I can't think of a way to use their abilities to aid the search.

"Wot's that?"

Gemma's hanging back a bit, pointing at one of the visiting Atlantians. Maybe this whole thing will shock her out of her magic fascination? Hm, no. Wishful thinking. "The big guy in the water's Blubber. Atlantian with whale traits grafted on. No idea how he got in here." I sort of assumed that Kaldur would just get Garth and Tula. Blubber can cope with the low pressure here well enough but he can't support his own weight out of water without suffocating. He _could_ have swam in through the hangar doors but it's an awfully long way here from Poseidonis. How did they get him from the zeta tube to the water? "Cthuloid-looking fellow's called Topo. Another Atlantian." I hadn't realised that he could walk on land. He's standing a short distance from the discussion going on between Kaldur, Tula and Garth. I point them out. "Aqualad, Tula, Garth."Garth's facing in our direction. He nods at me and I wave my right hand in response. He looks slightly puzzled by my guests then dismisses them with a small shake of his head. Kaldur's in Ocean Master gear sans helmet, which is sitting on the concrete steps behind them. "Zatanna Zatara and Lori Lemaris." Zatanna's by the water's edge talking to the mermaid. Lori notices me and I assume she says something because Zatanna glances my way before pointedly looking away. Not sure what that's about. "And the Creature from the Black Lagoon over by the steps is La'gaan." And William Batson is sitting next to him. I can't use his real name and he doesn't _look_ like Captain Marvel at the moment. Maybe I should just make something up?

Kaldur says something to Garth and Tula which prompts them to nod in agreement before turning away and walking over to the water's edge, Topo following on behind them. Kaldur stands still for a moment and then walks to meet me.

"Orange Lantern. It is good to see that you have remained with us."

"Fat lot of-. Yeah. Got anything so far?"

"The world wide nature of the spell, combined with its obvious power and complexity, makes it very hard to trace an origin point. And it seems that the League of Shadows were not the only ones to learn how to avoid unwanted attention." I nod. Supervillain networking at its worst. "Cornwall Boy." He offers Robert his right hand and to his credit Robert only hesitates slightly before taking it. "Orange Lantern speaks highly of you."

"Um. R-right. Thanks.. thanks for having me. I'll try and make myself useful."

Kaldur nods, then turns his attention to Gemma who is standing a little back from us. "I do not believe we have been introduced."

"This is Gemma Masters, John Constantine's niece. Gemma, Kaldur'ahm, our team leader."

Kaldur holds out his hand to Gemma, who clasps both of hers to her chest. After a moment Kalder lowers his hand. "Miss Masters, I understand that this must seem strange to you but rest assured that we are working as hard as we can to find out what happened to all our elders."

"Uh.. uh-huh..."

"Orange Lantern, have you tried speaking to the Ophidian?"

"No. And... And I should have done. Sorry, I should have-"

"Ah!" Gemma leaps passed me, trying to hide from something.. Teekl. Teekl nudged the back of her legs while lioness size and is now sitting down and regarding Gemma with amused curiosity. "What the hell is that!?"

"That's Teekl. Iiii _was_ going to ask her to keep you company. She's perfectly safe." Teekl gives me an incredulous look. "Safe to her friends. Usually." She's still looking at me. "Teekl, cooperate! Important things are happening!"

The tip of her tail flicks. "Teekl be nice to kitten."

"Right. I'm... I'll go and check on the Ophidian. R- _Cornwall_, stick with Kaldur."

"Okay, I can-"

The hangar disappears as I transition to the corridor just outside my room. Another post-joining improvement; the filters in the ventilation system are no longer fine enough to prevent my filament FTL. I open the door and quickly stride to where I keep the box containing my personal lantern.

"Reveal."

Whatever's happened to the world my subspace storage still works. The lantern... Damn it. Whatever reduced Robert's power looks like it's had its effect on my lantern as well. Rather than the brilliant glow it's had since I stuck the Ophidian in there it looks dull, glowing only faintly. No, that's not... It's at least as bright as its old 'two-charges-available' mode, just darker than I've got used to.

"Ring, lantern status."

"Lantern physically intact. Power drain detected. Error, unable to locate source."

"Is the lantern at risk?"

"Lantern integrity not at risk. Rate of power drain constant."

"Is the Ophidian still in there?"

"Lifeform 'Ophidian' not detected."

"Can the lantern be restored to full functionality?"

"Nature of error unknown, unable to effect repairs."

Great. Anything else? I don't need to recharge at the moment. "Occlude." The lantern vanishes once more. The Ophidian is certainly older than eighteen, if that really is the cut off point. But William Batson isn't, and Captain Marvel _is_ William Batson. I also don't know enough about the Amazons to know why some of them weren't effected. Are they the magic users? Ones who had some sort of defence? But if that was the case, wouldn't loads of Atlantians have avoided being effected? Gah, I don't know. What's the next step? Without the Ophidian there's no way I can stabilise world conditions by myself. With a drain on my lantern I can't even constantly work at small scale change _reliably_. No, stick to the counter attack strategy. I need to keep as much charge as possible available for that.

I blink, and for a moment see the mangled wreckage on the bridge. Damn it.

Next step, Marvel.

I transition back to the hangar, next to William and La'gaan.

"Neptune's beard!"

"Hey, ah, thanks for giving me access for the zeta tubes."

"You're welcome. Um, what am I supposed to call you at the moment?"

"Billy. Billy's fine. There's lots of Billys around."

"Alright, Billy. Adults aren't here, we are. I don't _know_ that Captain Marvel would go to wherever they are, but every moment we delay sorting this out more children die and I'm having trouble coming up with a better idea. Are you up for giving it a go?"

He shrinks a little, and looks away. "Ah, noooot.. really."

**5th November**  
**20:33 GMT -3**

"Ah. Mind if I ask why?"

"Because I'll just.. disappear! Captain Marvel might have the courage of Achilles, but I just have the courage of-" He looks around. "-of _me_."

"I've always been a bit suspicious of that one. Achilles knew he was invulnerable, right. So... How was what he did _brave_? How does fighting people who can't hurt you require courage? No, _Patroclus_ was brave, for daring to fight besides him while _lacking_ that invulnerability."

He keeps looking down. "Yeah, but... I mean, what if they're all..."

"They are not dead."

I appreciate La'gaan's confidence, but I can't be that sure. "Do we know that for certain?" He recoils slightly. "No, seriously, I don't know enough about magic to recognise the effect. Could what we observed have killed them?"

He has to think for a moment. "No. Finding everyone over a particular age everywhere on the planet-"

"Not everywhere. I'm still here, and eighteen hundred out of one hundred and eighty thousand Amazons are still on Themyscira."

"R-right. I don't know what would have prevented..."

"Wait. How did you manage that?"

I look down at where Garth is standing. "Ring, remove torso armour."

"Compliance."

Garth's eyes widen as he takes in my tattoos. The cuts and brands inflicted during the more recent work have faded into near invisibility, but they're _just_ about noticeable when I move. Garth comes closer and I walk to the steps to meet him. "What are those... What is that supposed to do?"

"The tattoos cause any attempt to scry for me to fail. They've been tested -not by me- against the most powerful life form in Hell. If he couldn't see through them, I'm probably safe.. from... "

Garth makes a scooping gesture with his left hand, his own tattoos glowing as he does so. A thin tendril of water rises from the pond and moves through the air to pool just besides him, forming an upright circle. He lays his left hand on it and it shimmers. Through the rear I see a picture of the steps I'm standing on, La'gaan and Billy. And not me. "That's..." He looks up as if to check that I'm actually here, then turns back to his water screen. "That shouldn't be possible. Who did this?"

"John Constantine. You remember,- "

"The wizard you brought with you..."

"That's him." I shake my head. "I'd really like to talk to him about this at the moment."

"How long does the effect last?"

"Should be permanent. John can carve runes directly onto a person's soul, so it-"

"That's not-!" He looks at the water window thing again. "No, clearly it is. I hadn't realised he was that skilled. Were you wearing your Spell Eater talisman when the.. **event** happened?"

"I never take it off, but I was assuming that it couldn't have drained a spell this big."

"It couldn't, otherwise the spell itself would have shut down. But the combination _might_ have prevented it from detecting you."

"Would it help if I took it off?"

He nods. "If we could monitor the effect as you disappeared, it might give us a better idea of how the spell worked. Of course, if it isn't the Spell Eater that kept you here, nothing will happen."

"Are we out of other ideas?"

He sighs. "We're training to be combat mages, not researchers. If we-"

"Okay." I put my right hand on the Spell Eater. "Do you need me to do something first?"

"I don't think... We can't use a spell to track you because your amulet will just absorb it-"

"And I can't take it off because that will trigger the disappearance."

"Right." He makes a small gesture with his right fingers and a small amount of water separates from his window. "But if you swallow this, we should be able to track it. And we can probably put... Tula! Kaldur! We've had an idea!"

They walk in our direction, accompanied by Zatanna. I try meeting her eyes, trying to get some idea of why she's annoyed with me. She spots what I'm doing and makes a point of looking away, arms folded across her chest. Hm. Think this is the first time I've seen her in Mister Gambi's armour. It's black with white lines which look like they're supposed to suggest the shape of a dinner jacket. Trousers rather than tights, thank goodness. Still wearing her hair loose but I'll take what rationality I can get.

Kaldur looks from me to Garth while Tula squints at my chest. Given Atlantian clothing standards I'm going to assume that she's just looking at the tattoos. "What is your idea?"

"We think that Orange Lantern will get transported to wherever the adults are if he takes off the Spell Eater. If we monitor it carefully we might be able to get some idea of the nature of the spell. The risk is that he almost certainly won't be able to come back if we do it."

Kaldur looks from me to Tula and then to Garth. "That.. sounds.. complicated. Were you able to get anything useful from the Ophidian?"

"Turns out that the Ophidian either isn't talking to me or is over eighteen."

He nods. "Robin told me that Batman and Zatara disappeared within a second. Would there be enough time for you to gain useful knowledge?"

Tula thinks for a moment. "Maybe. I don't know..."

"Would it be possible to drain power from whatever part of the spell causes the disappearances without shutting it down completely? Would that help?"

Garth frowns. "Doesn't your Spell Eater drain as much as it can all of the time?"

"Yes, but-. Cornwall! Over here! You remember how you were afraid that I was a magic drinking abomination?" Garth and Tula drop their gazes for a moment as Robert reluctantly leaves the shelter of the wall under the bioship's landing platform. "Turns out that Cornwall here _is_ a thaumovore." Tula and Garth simultaneously turn, look and take a small step away from him as he comes within touch range. "The men of his family appear to have an innate ability to drain magic from others and add it to their own reserves. He disintegrated a mob of Praexis Demons rather swiftly before we got here, and he _should_ be able to disrupt or at least slow down the spell effect enough that you can get whatever readings you need. Cornwall?"

"Um, maybe? I haven't had a lot of practice."

Kaldur looks at him. "Exactly how much practice have you had?"

"The Demons, and there were these sharkmen I turned back into normal Humans." The Atlantians just about manage to conceal their horror. "That's it. Nothing before today."

Kaldur turns back to me. "Do you understand the risks? We have no idea where you will go, if indeed you go anywhere."

"I accepted the risks when I took the job. I'm as well equipped to survive the process as I can be, and I really don't see a future in a world where everyone just vanishes at eighteen." My armour reappears, Spell Eater on the outside. Construct armour appears on top of that. Just to be doubly safe I add my MindShield construct.

Kaldur nods. "Very well. It would be best if everyone was involved in this." He gestures towards the waters edge where Blubber, Lori and Topo have clumped together. I nod and head towards them.

**5th November  
20:46 GMT -3**

Nothing!

Fucking... Nothing!

I'm standing in the training area, having taken over manning the monitoring and communications station from Robin and I'm still annoyed about that. I took off the Spell Eater and **nothing happened**! All that build up, I felt like a complete idiot. Garth said that I was probably protected by the tattoos instead and I can't exactly turn those off. Well, _maybe_ I could, but it turns out that Robert's magic sucking is a magic ability and he couldn't feel the magic making up the ward.

The Atlantian contingent are working on some sort of detection network that should be able to pick up major alterations in the Earth's magic systems without directly picking up the warded ritual site. I... I feel a bit useless. When I first got here I thought about prioritising disasters for the attention of the emergency services, only to kick myself for forgetting that there aren't any at the moment. I didn't prepare for this.

I've been hearing about the activity of some of our peers. A group from Japan whom I've never heard of called the Super Young Team have been making regular reports of their activities, including organising their fans to perform house to house searches for young children whose parents have disappeared. The power of social media. Kaldur plans to make a similar broadcast when he gets the time. Elsewhere in Japan an individual identifying themself as 'Hammersuit Zero-X' was noted as fighting some sort of monster. I can't get any pictures and the pilot appears to be less interested in self promotion than their countrymen. I've never heard of any of them, but when this is over they're all going in the notebook.

Several people have been active in Dakota City including Rocket. No Static, I noticed. No Big Bang event has happened here as far as I can tell so maybe we've got him to look forwards to. Donna phoned in earlier. She's attempting to organise things in New York but very much wants to be in on the attack when we find the source. I mentioned the thing about Amazons remaining behind but she couldn't come up with any explanation as to why that happened either.

Most disappointingly, no reports of anything that could be the focal point of the spell which is causing this. No reports, no pictures... I've got the ring doing an analysis of satellite imagery but I can't properly describe what it's supposed to be looking for. Next step is to just start scanning for every magic using supervillain there is and working out which ones we can't find, and that's just-

I look around as I hear footsteps. Zatanna walks down the corridor behind me and starts walking towards my position. She looks like she's deep in thought and isn't really paying much attention to her surroundings. She gets most of the way across the room before looking at me and then stops dead. No one else around and I don't really have any ideas on what I could be doing to fix the world so I suppose now's as good a time as any to find out why she's annoyed with me.

"Hi Zatanna."

"Um, yeah. Hi."

"Have I.. done something to offend you lately?"

"No." She crosses her arms. "What makes you ask?"

"Because I've got much better at reading body language since I got this ring. Also, your aura is tinged with red."

"I'm just worried about my father." She resumes her walk in my direction, stopping on the other side of the closest hologram screen and motioning her hand to turn it around.

"Right." I bring up a summary of events in New York. "Things seem to be staying quiet in your neighbourhood."

"Uhuh."

It's still night in China, so I don't have much information on what's happening there. Is there a Great Ten youth team? I don't remember one from the comics. "Mind me asking what you were doing when this all kicked off?"

"I was here, talking to Artemis about the team. And _you_ were busy setting fire to the Pope."

I stop and look at her. "Is _that_ what this is about? Zatanna, I've _never_ been to a Guy Fawkes Night celebration where they burned a dummy dressed as the Pope. I mean, yeah, they burn the _Guy_, but the major events stopped burning the Pope before I was even _born_."

"But you said..?"

I shake my head and shrug. "I just wanted to get out of going to the dance."

"Setting fire to the Pope isn't something you should joke about."

"Okay, _one_, setting fire to a dummy in robes. The few places that still do it do it because it's traditional, not because they hate Catholics. _Two_, not the current Pope, the Pope from a period of history in which the Catholic Church was trying quite hard to persuade Catholic European countries like Spain and France to invade England and convert us back to Catholicism by force. Ever heard of Bloody Mary? The queen, not the drink? Queen Mary Tudor, who had over two hundred people burned to death to try and achieve _that_ end after having her immediate Protestant predecessor _decapitated_. I don't have a problem with the Catholic Church as it is now and I don't have a problem with the current Pope. He's not exactly at Pius the Thirteenth levels of awesome but he's _alright_. Four hundred years ago when the commemorations started the Church was a very different organisation and I think it's worth remembering that. Third, you don't see me complaining about Independence Day, despite all the complete nonsense you lot get taught about British colonial policy. I'm not saying I'll go to a parade or anything but I'm not going to sit in my room hiding under a Union Jack with Men of Harlech and Jerusalemplaying on a loop." I pause to take a breath. "And I went **totally** overboard with that, didn't I?"

She nods. "A little, yeah."

"Sorry. And, I'm sorry, I hadn't realised the thing about the Pope would be that offensive. If I had, I wouldn't have said it."

"That's.. that's okay. I'll forgive you for that." She frowns. "What do you mean, 'complete nonsense we get taught about British-'."

"The fundamentality of the right to liberty proclaimed by rich slave owning white men. And they _did_ have representation, it was-."

"Recognised, Kid Flash, B zero three."

I think that was probably a lucky distraction.

"Hey Oh El, hey Zatanna. Any progress?"

I shake my head. "The Atlantians are working on it. How's Happy Harbour?"

"About as peaceful as it _could_ be. Think we've got all the kids out of the cars now."

"Ah. I'm sorry, how many died?"

He blinks in astonishment. "What? None? Why'd you... Oh. You were in Gotham, right?" I nod. Good to know that wasn't replicated everywhere. "How bad..?"

I look down, right fist tapping against my mouth. Zatanna's staring at me as well. "Fairly bad. Would have been.. convenient, to have a ring better adapted for medicinal uses."

"Right. So, um, hey, how come you're still here?"

"The consensus is that it's probably my warding tattoos."

"See, I've kind of got this bet going that you've been lying about your age." I tense, then try not to. "I think you're really under eighteen and _that's_ why you weren't affected." Aaaaand breathe.

"No, I'd definitely be in the target age group. I don't think it even works off that. It didn't affect eighteen hundred Amazons and M'gann's still here."

"Really?" Puzzled frown. "I though M'gann was, like, sixteen or something. Are you saying she's really eighteen?"

"Wallace, M'gann's forty eight."

"What."

**5th November  
20:53 GMT -3**

"Don't worry about it, Slayer. King Orin ordered Wotan locked up so well I doubt he can even move, let alone cast spells." King Nanaue Sha'ark grins at me. I _think_ he's grinning anyway. The way his mouth's structured makes it a bit hard to tell. "Same with Orm-" He grimaces. I think. "-and anyone else in Atlantis who could have done something like this. It's you surface worlders who can't keep your magic using criminals under control."

"I rather suspected, thank you." Sha'ark would be taller than me if he were standing fully upright. As it is the tops of our heads are about level. He came along with the others but he'd been lurking under the water until just now. He _can_ move about on land but he's not exactly elegant doing it. He only came up because he wanted to meet the man who crippled Orm.

Zatanna moves her hand through the holoscreen, removing Wotan and Orm from the Guess Who board of our potential suspects. There's still a _lot_ of faces on there. She signs. "This isn't going to work. There's no way they could have avoided being affected by their own spell without being outside of its area of effect."

"So we're probably looking for someone under eighteen?"

Sha'ark turns his head to the side to get a better look at the images. His head isn't _quite_ the same shape as a natural shark as his eyes are more forwards-facing. "Why is it eighteen anyway?"

Zatanna looks at him curiously. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"In Nanaue, you're adult at sixteen. If whoever did this was trying to get rid of people who could fight back shouldn't they have set the age limit lower?"

"Is that a clue?"

"Not unless you know where they could have got a spell to do **exactly** that. The sort of person who.. who'd do this... I don't think they'd be worried about that sort of thing."

"Hm. Carnage doesn't bother me, but this is pathetic. If you're going to remove the worlds most powerful warriors, you should attack immediately, not wait for them to work out how to stop you. Are you _sure_ nothing's happening out there?"

"No, I'm not. Nothing shows up on satellite and I'm monitoring discussion forums, but if something were happening in the parts of the world that're still asleep, or... Okay, that isn't helping. We agree that there must be someone under eighteen doing this?" Zatanna and Sha'ark nod. "Alright. I don't know of anyone under eighteen who _would_ do this, but I know a couple who _could_. Zatanna, if I give you a name can you send a message to a person?"

"Maybe, but who..? Are you talking about.. that Timothy Hunter guy?"

I shrug. "It would be convenient if we could get hold-"

"Who's this guy?" Sha'ark points at a picture of Klarion.

"Klarion, Lord of Chaos. Nasty piece of work. I stole his cat."

"Why's he on the adult list?"

"Because he's at least forty years old. In fact, according to Kent Nelson's notes he's an ancient eldritch abomination who just chooses to look like a child."

"So, not him then?"

"Wouldn't have thought.. so..." Wait a second. Mordred. As far as I can tell he doesn't exist here, but when he used his version of this spell in Justice League Unlimited he remained behind when he should have disappeared due to being at least a thousand years old. He didn't. "Last time I saw Klarion he didn't have access to most of his magic due to his lack of a familiar. He still looked Human."

Zatanna brings his image to centre screen, expanding it. "Do you think he could be behind this?"

"Maybe. I'm not sure how to check except by finding him."

"But if he doesn't have a familiar, where is he getting the power from? I mean, that was how you beat him, right?"

My mind flashes back to the **well fed** Praexis Demons. "Dread to think. He might just have got a replacement, I don't know what the requirements for a familiar are."

"The animal needs to be emblematic of the wizard adopting it, and have some sort of social bond to them." We both look at Sha'ark. "What? I go to the Conservatory to study these things. You think anyone in Nanaue would tolerate being ruled by an idiot? If he had a cat, he'd probably want a cat again."

"Klarion didn't strike me as an animal person. How strong a bond?"

"Familiars are animals. If you feed them, that's usually enough." Another Praexis Demon flashback.

"Would something else work? A Demon, or something?"

"A Demon?" He thinks for a moment. "I don't know. I've never read about it, but if the Demon were fully intelligent, I don't think so."

Come on out, Fatty.

A fat hand emerges from the ring, flaps around and then _somehow_ the Praexis manages to.. _fall_ out of the ring and belly flop onto the floor.

Zatanna takes several steps back. "Is that..?"

Fatty looks up without getting up. "Food?"

"No. It's a Praexis Demon I assimilated. So far it's only demonstrated intelligence equal to that of a monkey."

"Food now?"

"Maybe less. They're weak as Demons go, but if you fed it..."

"Consorting with Demons is a death penalty offence in most of Atlantis. I don't know anyone who would know how to make one a familiar." Sha'ark seems disconcerted by the idea.

Zatanna looks horrified. "Why would you take something like that?"

"I wanted to know why it was in Liverpool, and asking it didn't seem likely to work. And I was curious if it was possible to take a Demon permanently out of circulation using the ring's assimilation function. Normally, when you 'kill' a Demon you just send it back to Hell. I'm not one for temporary solutions."

"Do you think.. Klarion..?"

"Honestly, I think we're speculating too-."

"Aqualad to Orange Lantern."

I raise the ring to my ear. "Orange Lantern here."

"Billy has volunteered to transform. With luck, we will soon be back in contact with the Justice League. Have you found anything?"

"No, not... The only youngish magic user who could be doing this we've been able to come up with is Klarion."

"That does not bode well."

"He wasn't just going to disappear. Doubt he'd have any allies with him. I think the fight's winnable if the first wave use Spell Eaters to protect themselves and cover him in magic suppressors."

"Do you have any leads on his location?"

"No, sorry. Do you want Zatanna down there for when Billy tries it?"

"Yes." She nods and walks towards the lifts. "While we wait for news of his success, please, keep looking for any information that might help us."

"Of course. Orange Lantern out."

Not like there's anything else I _can_ do.

**5th November  
20:59 GMT -3**

"-am!"

I step away from the rapidly dispersing cloud of smoke as Billy appears in the training room, rapidly looking around to get his bearings. He's smiling like a loon so I assume-

"It worked! Batman, Zatara, Red Tornado and some British guy, they're in the mountain! Only not this mountain, it's-"

"A copy of the world where all of the adults went?"

"... Yeah." He peers at me. "How'd you know?"

"It was one of a range of possibilities, and given how you reacted it seemed to be most likely." I raise the ring to my ear. "Orange Lantern to Kaldur, good news. Billy's back and our elders are alright. You should probably come up here."

"We are on our way."

"Orange Lantern to team. Please return to base as soon as reasonably possible." I lower the ring. "Billy, when you say 'some British guy', can you describe him?"

"Uh, blonde hair, blue suit, long coat and he was holding an ice pack to his head."

John. Wait. "Ice pack?"

"Yeah. Guess he hit his head or something. But the main thing is **everyone's okay**!"

"No they're not. What you mean is; the majority of adults are physically okay. I can only imagine how bad the panic is worldwide. Have they had any more luck than us tracking down the perpetrators?"

"No, not yet. Zatara and the British guy were working on it. They said something about scrying for bad guys until they get the right one."

I look back at the list I was working from. That could take a while.

"I don't suppose they told you where Danni w-"

There's a blast of displaced air as Wallace comes to a halt next to us.

"Who's Danni, Oh El?"

"Danette Reilly. The gynoid?"

"Oh yeah, you were with her in-. Wait. You _abbreviated_ her _name_?"

"I.. suppose I did..?"

Wallace leans down to elbow Billy in the shoulder. "Y'know, for Oh El that's like second base."

"What's second base?"

"Uh..."

Wallace looks away, then looks relieved as the rest of the gang approach. Kaldur, Robin, Zatanna, Garth, Tula, Sha'ark and La'gaan file in. Floating around Garth and Tula are a small cloud of glowing stones. Our detection network, presumably. The plan had been to have me fly up into orbit and spread them out in a grid while the Atlantian contingent conducted the scan from the ground. Would have taken ages to scan the whole planet like that, but if we can narrow it down even a little...

Kaldur fixes his eyes on Billy. "What news?"

"There's, like, two worlds. Adults on one, kids on the other."

"My dad's okay?"

"Zatara's in the cave right now. He's standing right over there." He points near where I'm standing. I can see the tension visibly leave her. I hadn't noticed it earlier. I suppose I'm not the only one who tries to keep busy.

Kaldur looks a little relieved too. "Does Batman have orders for us?"

"He says you should keep looking for wherever the spell's being cast. I don't think they're having much luck with that either."

"Have they managed to identify the perpetrators?"

"No, they're trying to work it out based on who they can't detect."

"We do need to know if someone we haven't heard of might be handling the youth end of things. The only one we've been able to come up with is Klarion, and he's supposed to be out of action."

Garth takes hold of one of the rune stones and walks forwards to give it to Billy. "See if you can take this with you when you transform. If we're lucky we can create a sympathetic link between it and the ones on this side."

"Got it. Anything else you want me to tell them?"

"No. Take the stone to Zatara and return once we know whether or not it can be used to communicate."

Billy nods. "Sha-"

"Wait." Billy cuts himself off, and the others look at me curiously. "Is it really just Mister Zatara and John there trying to work out how this happened?"

"Well, yeah. Everyone else is out trying to keep order."

"Please pass on my suggestion to Batman that the League's priorities need to be reassessed. Panic is unfortunate but inevitable given the situation and the League is ill equipped to act as a police force. Everyone capable of aiding in the search in any way should be on that."

Kaldur frowns. "I do not think that abandoning-"

"Tell Batman to imagine a world where in every hospital, every clinic, every doctor's surgery... Doctors: gone. Surgeons: gone. Anaesthetists: gone. Critical care nurses: gone. Any child who was undergoing surgery when the separation occurred is most likely already dead." The faces around me whiten. What, didn't they think about this? "Most children who were in critical care wards will be dying without the constant attention they need. Small babies-" I wince and rub my brow. "-who were being bathed when their parents disappeared stand a good chance of drowning." My voice hitches. "And good as autopilots are I don't know how long we've got until planes start falling out of the sky with no pilots. Major roads are covered in crashed cars, the injured and the dead **and there aren't enough of us to help**. I will be astonished if we keep the death toll to a mere five figures -most of whom will be children- and I will shout the praises of any deity who feels like chipping in, we cannot _**afford**_\- " I take a ragged breath as my mind's eye sees the bridge again. "We can't afford to pay any unessential attention to secondary objectives. Please pass that on."

Billy stares at me wide eyed, mouth open. "O-okay. Sh-shaz-"

A flash of lightening and a puff of smoke and he disappears. I turn to see the others still staring at me. "What? Didn't you realise? This isn't two people in silly costumes hitting each other. This isn't theft. We aren't dealing with an ideology that could be engaged with. This is **mass murder** on a planetary scale at least. This makes the Injustice League look like amateur hour, and most of the victims will be young children."

Tula swallows. "The... The stones are ready. If you take them i-into orbit we can get started."

I nod. "Oh, um, if I'm not here when Billy gets back, tell him to get the Greenies to call in reinforcements from their Corps. Someone who knows how to do rapid planetary surveys." I use the ring to take hold of the stones. Garth shakes himself and takes one of them back. Right, for the communication attempt.

"Um, sorry to bother you..." Gemma and Teekl emerged from the trophy room. Gemma's hesitant, slightly crouched. Teekl's as confident as she always is. "You've.. probably thought of this, but.. to scry for someone you need something they've owned, right?"

Garth turns to her. "No, but it makes it a lot easier. Why?"

"Well... didn't Klarion.. used to own Teekl?"

**5th November  
21:23 GMT -3**

Fifty miles up, I move the enchanted stones to their next position. They really aren't designed to be used like this. In Atlantian cities they have things like these spread out through the streets to monitor thaumic shifts for much the same reason that the surface world monitors solar radiation. Moving them around makes it much harder to detect anything. If I had a thousand of these we'd already have a location but there's no way to make that many new ones in the time in which we have to complete this mission or rework the ones currently in use in Atlantis.

"Aqualad to Orange Lantern. Zatara has identified Blackbriar Thorn as being among our enemies, and confirms that Wotan remains in his cell."

"Understood. Any news on the Lanterns?" Teekl cooperated surprisingly well with the scrying but her link to Klarion barely exists in arcane terms, what with her no longer being his familiar and becoming a Construct-Lantern. The best we could get was 'somewhere in the south-east of the United States' but that's more than we had before.

"Lantern Stewart has confirmed that the effect is limited to Earth."

Blubber was in a bit of a state when I left. Whales can't breath water, and neither can Whale-form Atlantians. His people used Whale-form shapeshifting before the sinking and are the only ones to live in homes with air-filled spaces in the modern day. Though obviously dangerous the only real alternative would be moving to Venturia. It's the only Atlantian city-state with territory above water, but it's also the most autocratic and usually the risk is perfectly manageable. Adults have a spell-song for extracting oxygen dissolved in the water and children usually accompany them until they're old enough to learn to do it for themselves. Which means that as of a couple of hours ago any of them caught outside their homes have had to hold their breath and swim for an air pocket. They _should_ mostly be alright as their lung capacities are as good as the natural Whales they pattern themselves after. But if any get lost, or panic and try to swim for the surface...

"What about reinforcements?"

"No news yet. Move to the next location."

I'm moving quite large distances. It's up in the air as to whether they'll work as intended at all. Only advantage of there hardly being any magic users in this country is that anything artificial-looking is probably our target. I'm over North Carolina now, near the coast. _Why_ is Klarion doing this? There aren't really any other examples of confirmed Lords of Chaos. I suppose this is certainly chaotic, maybe that's the point. Maybe the people we're fighting are just that bad. Perhaps their desires are just too... Inhuman. I blink and trigger OphidiansEyes and the dark world below covered in points of light near major areas of inhabitation is replaced with something that looks like one of those satellite images we used to look at in secondary school geography. It's practically impossible to make out individual sets of desires at this range and with this many people. I think I'm glad about that. No. I don't think it's helping, nothing's standing ou-

Mommy! Daddy! Help!

I clutch my head, clamp my eyes shut and try and shut the Eyes down. Agh! Individual desires might be imperceptible but the collective whole is strong enough. Need to try again. Need to refine it. Ring, track individual desire-clusters. I want to.. to _skim_ the desires.

"Nothing again. Move to next location."

I take the stones south, watching the desires as I go. Rather than listening to a crowd like before and being overwhelmed when they shout in unison this is like hearing a great many quiet voices in succession. They're going so fast that I don't know if I'd spot anything...

Oh no. I'm hearing them cut out. I'm _seeing_ them go dark. I thought.. _ah_.. I though that by this point most of the deaths would have already occurred. They probably have but that doesn't mean

_Exaltation, joy, speed,__ lights out._

that more people.. more **children**, aren't going to die while I'm doing this. I take a second to see what that last one was about and see a freshly burning car, smashed up and flipped on its roof. Joy riding idiots. Why..? Why would they..? Focus. I know that what I'm doing is the best way to end this but I'm _really_ starting to understand why most superheroes prefer the inefficient way. This is... More going dark. North Carolina has about nine million inhabitants. I should have expected this. Even on a normal day people would be dying. I don't know if this is unusual or not. I hope it is. The glow of orange just makes it more obvious when the dark patches suddenly appear, however small they are.

"We have something! Hold position." Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease. "Move to position out to sea, just off the coast."

I can't use FTL transfer without them losing the connection and I can't risk the delay that would cause but I think this is the fastest I've ever flown anywhere. I want to ask what they've picked up but I can't risk distracting them. I scan the area below me with the Eyes again but I don't even know if they'd work through the ward. More fading out.

"Move south. There's some sort of distortion effect."

I comply. "Is it him?"

"I am uncertain. Given that these readings are indirect it must be incredibly powerful but it does not match what I felt during our last encounter with Klarion."

"Would having a new familiar to draw power through change the feeling?"

"There are too many unknown factors. Decrease height to twenty miles."

"Decreasing height. Is it worth notifying the League?"

"Not yet. I do not wish to alert them until we have something solid."

Below me the American coastline tapers off towards Florida. To the north there's a fairly impressive river mouth and off the main coastline there are a few small islands. I switch between daylight-augmented vision, normal vision and the Ophidian's Eyes, trying to spot something that could be relevant just a little sooner. The ritual site could well only be a few metres across and from this height unless it _really_ stands out it's a faint hope, but I have to **try**, damn it!

"Twenty miles, holding position."

When this is over I think I'm going to have to be a bit more forceful about the research and development thing. Now that I've cleared local space there's really no reason why we couldn't install a magic field reading network. Unlike normal spy satellites I don't think the Security Council would object to us tracking something they don't use in any significant way, particularly if this is the result of _not_ doing so. I cringe and close my eyes as a series of orange lights disappear, fire consuming a street. No fire services. No adult on hand to grab a fire extinguisher at the first sign of smoke. I can't tell what started it. Dodgy wiring? An unattended deep fat fryer? It isn't just the new disasters, it's all the small things adults are better equipped to deal with than small children, accidents always producing casualties at the top of the predicted range because all of the things that could ameliorate the situation aren't happening.

I could try getting the ring to analyse visible light, but at this height I'm going to get a great deal of blur. Long range scans are unreliable because of the wards. I _**hate**_ this powerlessness!

"Orange Lantern, we have something. Decrease height to ten miles and move fourteen miles to the south west."

"Height decreased, movement complete. I'm directly over-" Ring? "The Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge."

"We have your location. The technique we're using can only give us the approximate location of what we're looking for. Are you able to see anything unusual?"

"No! Sorry. Sorry. Give me a moment. Ring, membrane and visible light analysis." A pale orange glow extends across the sky behind me. Shouldn't really be noticeable from the ground. Were there anyone down there to notice it. Water, sand, grass... "Can you suggest a direction?"

"It would-. One moment." He goes quiet and I extend the light-sensitive film further. Still nothing. "Try to the north."

"Moving north." I follow the sandbank north and a little to the west. I've no idea what makes a good ritual site. Would Klarion bother with conventional camouflage? I really don't know. "Coming up on Roanoke Island." I try to avoid looking at the inhabited areas in any detail. We haven't heard any reports and someone would have said something by now, wouldn't they? Wait, what's-? "Got something." A blur of purple in the middle of a woodland. Shouldn't be there and a direct scan with the ring says that it isn't there. I move directly over it, dropping the membrane construct as I do so. My eyes can see it well enough now. There's a glowing, five pointed star drawn on the ground down there and kneeling in the centre is a colossal purple humanoid. Five streams of purple light flow from its back to small circles at the points of the star. Four are empty, but the fifth...

"I have visual confirmation. Klarion's on Roanoke Island. And he's got a friend."

**5th November  
21:29 GMT -3**

"Relaying visuals now." Giant purple genie thing. Bedlam. I can't see whatever his name was, the boy it bonded to in the comics. Maybe Klarion took that role or stole Bedlam from him. Does this mean that Klarion still doesn't have much of his own power? If it weren't for the wards I could scan him to make sure that he still reads as a baseline Human. Certainly his proportions are still more 'correct' than the first time we met.

I don't see a shield.

Directly behind me the railgun construct appears. I know he can't detect me with magic. He _could_ see me with his eyes, but I'm still ten miles up and I'm not actually glowing all that much. I know I'm perfectly capable of firing my projectiles hard enough to level a good chunk of that woodland. If he _is_ Human at present then he'd be reduced to meat in seconds.

And I really want to kill him.

I can't see any other magic users. If that Bedlam is anything like the one in the comics then it can rearrange reality as soon as it notices us. Should I take the shot? No. What set of actions is most likely to result in Klarion's death?

"Billy is notifying the Justice League now. Assuming that the adults taking part in the ritual were occupying the other points of the star there will be three others in addition to Blackbriar Thorn. That.. being in the centre. I have never seen anything like it."

"My first guess would be a Djinn but I can't claim to know anything about its capacities for certain."

The best outcome is most likely to result from us working together. "Did you give Billy a picture of the symbols he's using? John will want to see it."

"Of course. It would probably be best if you returned to the cave. I do not want Klarion to learn of our coming until we are ready to strike."

I can't use FTL until I'm out of his line of sight. An orange streak across the sky would be a blatant give away. I keep my distance, flying in a curve towards sea level. I don't see him looking around. A summoning would probably be able to see me if he had them on sentry duty. I have the ring show me a map of the land's contours, plotting the earliest time I can FTL back and pick up the others. Being an island that means that I have to go further than I would like. Can't risk going supersonic because I haven't bothered practising and the noise would attract his attention. With FTL available practising it just didn't seem worthwhile. Briefly I consider travelling underwater but I haven't practised that post Ophidian and I don't know how brightly the travel corridor would shine.

It feels like five minutes by the time I get enough land and tree between Klarion and myself that I feel confident that I will not be spotted. I plot the FTL transfer as close as I can to the ground -sure, it'll be spotted, but it's not like Klarion is watching news reports- and in a flash I'm at the external Happy Harbour zeta tube. Come a long way since the first time I came here with Diana and Alan.

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

The ring protects my eyes from the glare as I walk into the main training area. The team's all here, along with Donna and Robert at one end of the group and Garth and Tula at the other. Sha'ark, Gemma and Teekl are lurking near the back wall while the others are standing in front of the main holo display. A pile of heavy chains and manacles covered in runes made of gold filaments sit under it while it displays the images I took of the area.

"-am!"

Billy reappears, takes a second to get his bearings and then scurries up to Kaldur. "Green Lantern confirmed it, they're on Roanoke Island. Four guys: Felix Faust, Blackbriar Thorn, Wizard and some guy in a black cloak he didn't recognise. The big purple guy doesn't show up on that side."

"Does Batman have a plan?"

"He thinks we should attack both places simultaneously, in case they can warn each other. Um, and he thinks we should do it quickly." He looks at me nervously. "Batman thought you were right about stopping them as soon as possible being the most important thing, but without the League around.. people are getting scared."

"How scared?"

"A mob attacked Star Labs in Gotham. By the time the police got it under control the whole place was on fire. I guess... Things like that, they're gunna be happening in a lot of places, aren't they?"

"Probably. The faster we end this the faster it stops." Except for those whose children have already died. I don't dare even think about telefragging.

Kaldur picks up a set of manacles. "These are used by Atlantis to imprison powerful magic users. Placed around Klarion's arms and legs they should prevent him using his magic."

Wallace gestures to the image. "Do they come in giant size?"

Ring, Spell Eaters. The three of them appear just in front of me, held up by my orange aura. "No, but these do. I'm not saying they'll make you magic proof but.. near as I can do."

Robin looks from them to me. "Don't you need one of them? I mean, given what happened last time we fought him..."

"I don't have that special vulnerability anymore, and-" I tap the armour in the centre of my chest. "-I've still got my first generation model."

"Kid Flash." Kaldur holds out the manacles to him. "You stand the best chance of getting close enough to him to use these." Wallace takes hold of them and give a sombre nod. I float a Spell Eater over to him and slip the thong around his neck.

"That will protect you from direct attack and generally cause magic around you to fall apart. If he conjures fire it will still burn you. If he makes himself physically more powerful like he started to last time we fought it won't help at all."

"Got it."

"Superboy. Troia." He picks up a length of chain. "This will be less effective, but with luck it will suppress Klarion's power to something we can cope with." Kon puts the chain over his right shoulder and they both catch the Spell Eaters I send their way. This is the first time he'll be wearing the Nth Metal armour on a mission, but he's done plenty of training with it. Sadly it doesn't have the same magic-negating effect as Hawkgirl's mace in Justice League Unlimited. Other than letting him fly I'm not sure how much help it'll be.

"Ah-" Robin points at the manacles. "-I know Kid's got the best chance of putting it on him, but shouldn't we all have one of those just in case?"

Garth shakes his head. "There aren't any more. Those are the strongest we could find. The sort of manacles used on regular prisoners wouldn't stand a chance of working on a Lord of Chaos." Robin nods.

"Miss Martian. Do you believe you would be able to conceal us under a telepathic illusion?"

"If.. Klarion's.. mind is like a normal Human's... Probablyyy." She doesn't sound certain. Heck, she's got good reason not to.

"Do what you can. Our best chance is for Kid Flash to get close without being spotted. Cornwall." Robert appears to be doing a bit of a deer in the headlights impression, but he manages a nod. "When we reach the ritual area, your first target is the spell warding the area against detection. Once it is down I want you to try and disrupt the ritual directly." Another nod. "During our previous encounter Klarion favoured attacks of pure magic, though he may change tack if he realises that approach is ineffectual."

"I'll manage. I'll have to."

"Garth, Tula; Roanoke is a small island. I want you at the water's edge ready to strike at Klarion as soon as the ward is down." Scry targeted water artillery. Useful, plus it gets two people we haven't trained with out of the immediate fighting area. "Orange Lantern. Do you believe that you will be able to assimilate the Djinn as you did Teekl?"

"It's not impossible, but I wouldn't want you to depend on it. In theory the ring should work on just about anything but I just don't know enough about it... Or how long it might take."

He nods. "Try anyway. The rest of us will do our best to distract Klarion from his magics. Remember, our primary aim is to end the spell as quickly as possible. Attacking Klarion is only worthwhile in that it makes that goal easier to accomplish." There's a short pause. "Does anyone have anything they wish to add?"

"Just one thing. I'll be taking my lantern with me. If we're able to break Klarion's focus and remerge the worlds, I doubt it'll just go away. And the only thing I'd feel confident taking that thing on with is the Ophidian."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

**5th November  
21:36 GMT -3**

Looks of surprise and dismay from my team mates while Robert, Garth and Tula just look puzzled. Right, I suppose they haven't read the reports of what I did while under the influence. As far as I remember we didn't go under water, though we did spend enough time in the UK to rename Pevensey Castle as Westham Castle. Probably didn't make the news. It's such a stupid thing; we could have tracked down Klarion _then_, but instead we focused on correcting a signing error that doesn't even exist in this parallel.

"Are you sure that is wise?" Kaldur sounds concerned, but I don't hear a better alternative. "Last time you bonded with it, your ability to focus was severely compromised."

"I know, but even if it happens exactly the same as last time I'm fairly confident that at the very least I... _We_ would remain focused on the Djinn for the duration of the fight."

Garth frowns. "What are you talking about?"

Kaldur glances sideways at his friend. "Orange Lantern's personal lantern is home to a powerful Avarice Elemental. When they bond, his power increases dramatically."

"How dramatically?"

"He-. _They_ did not strain themselves in rotating the moon full circle."

The newcomers take a moment to absorb that. Tula recovers first. "Why aren't you using now? With something that powerful-."

"Because he goes _**crazy!**_"

Artemis doesn't like the idea, it seems. "That isn't why. It isn't here. I checked my lantern earlier. I mean, it's an ancient Elemental, of course it's over eighteen."

Robin frowns. "So where is it?"

"The lantern was in subspace when the separation happened. I.. assume it's in the copy of my lantern on the adult side. If it was loose I'm sure Batman would have mentioned it."

"What happens if you move the lantern and it isn't in the same place as the one the Ophidian's in when the spell ends?"

"Um. Oh. Not sure. That's... That's a good point, actually." I was worried about telefragging, but if the lantern moves to Roanoke while the Ophidian stays behind... "No, you're right. I can't risk it. Aqualad, once the merger occurs I can transport myself back here and pick it up, but Robin's right. I shouldn't take it with me. "

Kaldur nods. "Is there anything else?"

"Yeah." Sha'ark moves away from the wall and takes a few steps towards our group. "I need Slayer to take me back to Nanaue before you kick things off."

"Why?"

"What he was saying earlier got me thinking. King Arp'ax and all the Councillors are on the adult side. I'm the only ruler left. My blood tells me to fight, but my head tells me my city needs me." He snarls. "And it tells me I can't fight on land well enough to make a difference."

I look at Kaldur and shrug. "I can drop you off on the surface above the city. I'll only take a couple of seconds."

"Very well. Once that is done, return here to transport the bioship to Roanoke. Billy, inform Batman that we will begin out attack at twenty one forty five eastern standard time."

He nods. "Right. Shaza-!" He's gone in a cloud of smoke.

I head towards Sha'ark as Kaldur turns to the group. "Make any remaining preparations and then head to the bioship. We leave as soon as Orange Lantern returns." There's a collective nodding and they head to the lift, Zatanna hanging back a bit. Probably wants to talk to Kaldur about something. I reach Sha'ark and create a zeta tube construct.

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, B zero six, King Nanaue Sha'ark, A one two."

We rematerialise in Happy Harbour. "Haven't done this with a sharkman before, so if you feel unwell let me know."

Nanaue is in the North Atlantic, north of the Greater Azores and roughly on the same latitude as Edinburgh. Atlantis covers a large area but virtually all of its population is concentrated in its sprawling city-states. Nanaue doesn't bother with a census, but official estimates give it a population somewhere between two and three million, virtually all of them sharks. The world flickers and we're hanging in the air a long way above and a little to the south of it. It's raining, and with all the clouds there's little to distinguish the sea from the sky.

"Can you find your way from here?"

"If we're in the right place I'll smell it when I get in the water."

"Okay, well, thank you for your help-."

"I never understood why High King Orin liked the Justice League so much. I always respected him as a warrior, but what does the surface world have to do with us? Now I get it. One powerful enemy can tip the sea into the sky and you lot stop just long enough to work out how to cut _his_ hands off."

"We can do more together."

"You might have something there. Hm. Those scampi you and the Cornwall boy caught. If your king-."

"Queen."

"Whatever. If your queen doesn't know what to do with them, send them our way. I'll see they get straightened out."

I nod and release him. He turns face down in the air and shimmers blue as the sea rises up to meet him. I don't just mean the waves, a whole area about forty metres across extends upwards. All of Kaldur's Atlantian friends have specialised in their preferred areas of arcane combat and Sha'ark is a very capable aquatic melee fighter. Sharkman mages are more muscle wizards than mid range blasters like Kaldur, which unfortunately means his assessment of his usefulness in a fight on Roanoke was completely accurate. I watch for a moment through the water as he shoots downwards at a pace that a torpedo would envy, then create another zeta tube construct to transport myself back to the mountain.

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

I emerge in the hangar and transition to the air just above the bioship as my team mates come through the lift doors. Tula and Garth could really do with some armour, but if their part of our strategy works they shouldn't see direct combat. And I suppose if it doesn't then a little ceramic plating isn't likely to do much against a Lord of Chaos. I watch as they all pile into the bioship. I should probably stay out here, given how crowded it must be getting in there. I'll need to drop the bioship off a little way away; it's still unarmed and we want to attack from an ambush if at all possible.

But...

Kaldur's plan involves doing things the superhero way. Nothing he said was wrong exactly but I doubt he even considered the more militant approach. I am quite capable of railgunning the site. If Klarion _has_ been brought down to Human physical normalcy then I can assimilate him. In fact, if Fatty is anything to go by it won't even be that hard. Klarion didn't strike me as one to practice deferred gratification. If. _**If**_ I can pull it off, then whatever the Djinn can do shouldn't be a problem. Or... The ritual symbol. If I can just shoot the ground underneath it, would that disrupt the process?

I consider as the hangar doors open and I plot the best flight path. Deliberately firing to kill. How badly do I want this? It won't be like Clayface; if it works Klarion will be meat paste. I blink and see the bridge again. Yes, I think I can live with that. I raise my left hand slightly and surround myself in construct armour. **Everyone ready?**

**All set.** M'gann's mental voice sounds distant. Usually before a mission there's a little excitement, a little... Not _fun_exactly, but at this point Wallace or I would try a little humour. Not this time.

**Course plotted. Prepare to engage stealth once I disengage. Transition in three, two, one.**

AAAAAAAAAAAAA.

Alternative.

**5th November  
21:42 GMT -3**

We appear just above sea level, just north east of the Kitty Devil Hills. M'gann engages the stealth system as I rise up from the bioship, extending the finest filament I can into the sky above me. I need to check that-

**Aqualad to Orange Lantern, is-?**

**Confirmed, Klarion and the purple entity are still in place. Relaying image now.** I open my mind to the rest of the team, showing them what my optic membrane construct is showing me. Beneath me I see the distortion in the air as the bioship begins its approach.

Am I actually going to do this? Not the murder attempt -and it _is_ murder, I don't have any sort of legally recognised authority to shoot criminals dead- but acting outside the agreed upon behaviour of my ingroup.. that's a little harder. Should I say something?

**Orange Lantern to Aqualad. Would it be helpful to disrupt the physical structure of the ritual site?**

**At this point it is most likely that it would not.** There's a brief pause. **Tula and Garth are in the water and heading for the shore. We will be landing momentarily.**

**Understood.** No response from Klarion or Bedlam yet. I should be undetectable to them but the others aren't. On the other hand the woodland should conceal their approach from visual detection but with my armour glowing I'd be quite visible. Keep to the plan, or attack immediately myself?

I see the bridge again. 

Right. I transition to a point three hundred metres above the ritual site. From here I can easily see Klarion and Bedlam with my unaided eyes. Bedlam looks unwell, while Klarion's standing in a fairly relaxed pose in his space in the magic circle, soaking in the power flowing from Bedlam.

"Ring, firing solutions."

Target plots appear in front of me as a circle of railgun constructs appear in the air around me. Multiple points of impact should disrupt the ground of the ritual site. I'll shoot Klarion and Bedlam as well. Bedlam will most likely ignore it but this could _end_ Klarion. Before Wallace or after? I know he _can_ perform complex actions at super speed but... No.

The railguns hum, higher in pitch than they used to. I have the ring calculate the effect of the kinetic energy on the ground. The forest is acceptable collateral damage but nearby village of Wanchese isn't. Done.

**Stand clear stand clear. Ordinance inbound.**

**Orange Lantern, what-!?**

The guns around me flash and dust erupts from the ritual site, obscuring my view. The purple glow of Bedlam is still there, but I can't tell whether I got Klarion or not. If you haven't found the body... I transition down into the billowing dust cloud, emitting beams of orange light in all directions in an attempt to feel out the environment. There's a distortion as they pass through Bedlam but he doesn't seem to be reacting to either them or to me.

**Orange Lantern, what did you do!**

**Bombarded the ritual site in an attempt to kill Klarion. Given that we aren't seeing his accom-**

My armour shuts down and I fall to the ground.

**Ufff!**

"Well, look what the cat _didn't_ drag in." A wave of orange light pulses outward, drawing the dust from the air. The ground I'm laying on is broken, as if someone took a giant rotavator to it. The ritual site is unaffected, protected by a glowing purple dome. The power for the dome flows not from Bedlam himself but instead rises from Klarion's left hand like evaporating nitrogen. I try raising my armour again but nothing happens! Klarion smiles at my confusion. "Get over here." An orange hand materialises in the air next to me and forcefully grabs me before pulling me through the air to hang in front of Klarion. He's hacked my ring! How the hell has he done that? I try reaching for my pistol but the orange hand pins my arms to my sides! Don't think it would do much anyway. "Have you got any idea how hard it is to find a lost city? I had to spend **weeks**in that stoopid desert, and even longer making sure the spell didn't affect you." The hand rotates and then flicks me across the ground with force. Ow! "But it was worth it!" I get my arms up to protect my head but even through my body armour I'm going to get a bruise.

I take a moment to look at the ring. It looks dirty, orange light barely showing through the caked on dust. Wait. Lost City. Dust. There's something about that... Klarion grins and steps through the shield protecting his ritual site. Purple power stops flowing to him from Bedlam and instead goes directly into the shield. Klarion raises his hands and a giant orange Klarion appears above him, leaning over me and grinning in the inhuman way he did before I took Teekl. That was it! In the comics, Vandal Savage tried something like this on Alan! I don't remember how he got out of it, but I know how I'm going to.

"Now, how do I make you give me Teekl back?"

I reach across with my right hand and pull the ring from my finger.

"Hey, what-!" The confused face of the construct evaporates as I shove the ring into one of my pouches and scramble back to my feet. Klarion looks up in the air in confusion for a moment before locking his eyes on me. "How do you keep _doing_this?! Bedlam!"

The purple colossus turns slightly. If I had to guess I'd say it was genuinely unwell. Nonetheless, it raises a purple right arm and sends a wafting stream of purple energy through the barrier into Klarion. He throws his head back and drops his arms to the sides. When he returns his gaze to me his eyes glow with purple light. "Y'know, if you'd let me keep using the ring I'd have played with you for a bit. Now, I'm just gunna squash you!" He makes a punching motion with his right hand, I tense, and a circle of ground five metres away is flattened by a tremendous physical force.

Eh?

"What?" Klarion looks at his hand in bewilderment. Recovering quickly, he points his right middle and forefinger at me like a gun, and a brilliant beam of purple energy.. goes.. straight.. past me? I start moving clockwise around the ritual area as he charges an electrical blast in his hands. The lightning bolts strike the area around me to Klarion's visible frustration. "Aagh!" He can't aim at me. He can't aim at me! He concentrates, walking forwards to keep me in sight, and fires off another bolt. This one hits me in the chest. There's a small pain and I feel the muscle around the impact site clench, but my body armour is well insulated enough to take it! Thank you Mister Gambi!

**The Djinn's called Bedlam. He's charging Klarion but doesn't otherwise seem to be participating.**

Klarion's mouth glows and I lunge forwards to press myself against the side of the purple shield as he vomits forth a wave of purple fire. It misses -just- and I don't feel any heat from it. Startled, I look at the ground and see that the upturned soil has been transmuted, replaced with brick, glittering jewels, sand, some sort of slime and a strange blue bush that doesn't look anything like earthly plant life. When the flames peter out I start moving again, trying to get to the far side of the shield. Klarion watches me from the other side, not bothering to respond until I reach the opposite side from him. His eyes appear to have reverted to normal.

"Bedlam!" The Djinn's hand points to him again and purple light envelopes him. Glowing eyes again. Is he becoming vulnerable?

**Klarion appears to burn through the power Bedlam's giving him quickly. I suggest waiting until he does so again and then sending Kid Flash in with the chain.**

**What did you think you were _doing_?**

Kaldur's understandably annoyed. **I was trying to kill Klarion as quickly as possible. And I should point out that he had no warning before I strafed the ritual site and the shield was **still** there. If Kid Flash had gone in first he'd just have run into it.** Again, I share my vision of what is happening in front of me.

**Why aren't you using your ring?**

Kon sounds more concerned than angry, though I can hear anger there as well. **Klarion did something to it to take control of it. I took it off to stop him.**

**Sit tight Oh El, be with you in a sec.**

**Wait 'till he's discharged!**

Looking across the circle, Klarion appears to have reached a decision. "Oh well. If I can't blast you, I'll just have to pull your arms and legs off." He crouches slightly, and his body stretches in the same way it did near the end of our last fight. His arms and legs lengthen and become far thinner than is humanly possible. He gains an extra set of elbows and knees and at least two fingers on each hand. His spine lengthens and bends, giving him a permanent stoop. His fingers grow and gain talons for fingernails and his face... His face regains some of the inhumanity he displayed on top of Nabu's Tower, glowing purple eyes and obvious monstrosity.

Then he pushes off the ground and clears the shield dome in one easy leap.

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Resume.

**5th November  
21:46 GMT -3**

He swings at me with his right talon but I'm already moving out of the way. Ah! Not fast enough though! His claw clips my left side and flicks me into the air. I roll as I land, my left hand instinctively checking the area struck. The dyneema outer layer is ripped clean through and the plates beneath are scratched but unbroken. Not super strong then. I get my feet underneath me just as he swings again and I dive out of the way. Okay, big, strong, not all that agile. Still got no way to hurt him.

"Oooh, are we having tro_uuuu_ble?" He fans his hands out towards me as I get up again, a ball of purple fire growing in size and intensity. Maybe I can use the shield to make it hard for him to manoeuvre again? I'm up and running again. A moment later I hear a rapidly closing roaring sound and.. for a second the right side of my body feels.. _strange_. Not painful, but as if the sensory input was for something of a different size or shape and wasn't being interpreted correctly. Phantom limb where the missing limb was made of tentacles. I glance at myself and for a moment see my body wreathed in pink fire before the flames are evaporated by the Spell Eater. If that had been a normal fire I would have been unpleasantly burned just them. "Gah! Not again!"

I risk a look back, slowing as I do so. Klarion stares at his hands as his eyes flicker between purple and normal. Right. I draw my pistol and take aim. **Kid Flash, whenever you're ready.** I fire.

**Blam!**

My first round misses, his unusual body shape throwing off my instincts. The noise makes him look up in surprise.

"A gun? You can't have-."

I aim more carefully and fire again.

**Blam!**

It clips the side of his body.

"Ah!"

I can't tell how much that really hurt him. Not much by the look of it. He starts towards me again. Right, his torso's facing me. It's not going to get any easier.

**Blam!** **Blam!** **Blam!**

A hastily materialised barrier blocks the shots, but he stops coming towards me and he definitely looks worried. And it's not quite big enough to-

**Blam!**

"OW!"

-protect his feet. He looks faintly ridiculous hunched up like that. Right, six shots, pretend to be out. Lower the gun. He hops a little but he doesn't look seriously injured.

"Klarion, you're under arrest for over a thousand murders and sorcery most foul." Which is technically a crime in its own right in the US. Thank you .

"Oh, boo _hoo_." He shrinks back to his normal size, a little of his cockiness gone. "Bedlam!"

Gun up. **Blam!** **Blam!** Two hits, upper left chest and left shoulder.

"A-ah!" Klarion goes down on his back, and in a rush of displaced air Wallace materialises next to him and clamps the manacles shut around his wrists and neck. I take a moment to breathe. Did we just..?

I hear running and look around to the direction Wallace just came from. Kon and Donna lead the way, flying into Bedlam's barrier and punching it repeatedly. Robert's a little behind them, the same distortion his father used on them both in London forming a aura around his body. He slams to his knees, laying his hands flat on the ground. Right, the anti-scrying ward. Not sure that should be a priority now.

**Aqualad to Orange Lantern. Are you injured?**

**Not that I can feel.** I take a moment to make sure everything's still there. Yess... Can't check under the armour and without the ring to regulate things I'm swimming in so many endorphins that I'm not sure I'd feel it.

"Citsym reirrab, espalloc!"

I need to talk to Zatanna about the white patches. Without those she'd have quite effective camouflage. She's staying back, but I see the shield start to buckle where she's pointing at it. Robert stands and joins in. I start walking in her direction. With no ring and the rest of my ammunition in my presently inaccessible subspace pocket I'm a near total liability at the moment. Shit, no ring. I fish it out of my pocket and look at it. Still covered in hardened gunk, and my armour doesn't come with a utility belt. Maybe if I find Robin-.

"Bedlam!" Oh, what's he doing n-. Oh shit. Bedlam turns towards where Klarion lays on the floor and the flows of energy to the other points of the circle disappear. Then the barrier drops and Bedlam compresses and flows directly into Klarion's mouth and eyes. Wallace backs away in a hurry as Klarion rises into the air, the chains around his arms and neck glowing brilliant purple for a moment and then exploding away. The injuries I'd managed to inflict on him vanish and he turns his inhuman grin towards Wallace. Wallace starts to run, but a series of purple lightning bolts strike at the area around him with enough force to make the ground explode! He evades two, but the third strikes him directly and the blast from the fourth sends him careening into the tree line.

I start running directly away from him. I haven't got any way to hurt him. What can I do? **Aqualad, I strongly suggest having Cornwall take down the ritual site as soon as possible.**

**Cornwall, do it. Garth, Tula, target Klarion. Kid Flash, status.**

**I'm.. I'm okay. Worried there for a minute. That ward thing really came through.**

Robert takes a few awkward steps forwards into the circle and Donna and Kon fly at Klarion, chain stretched out between them. It hits him in the stomach and pulls him through the air a few metres before his body glows purple and he stops dead. Donna and Kon turn and try yanking on the chain harder to no effect as he turns to face them.

**"Stop bothering me."**

His hands glow brilliant purple, then he points them directly at the two of them and fires. Both drop the chain, Kon evading, while Donna follows her Amazon training and blocks with her bracers. I wince, but enchanted mithril and Improved Spell Eater combine to result in her merely being knocked flying. Kon flies along the deck to attempt to ram into Klarion with his fists only to be intercepted by a far stronger looking purple barrier which brings him to a full stop.

Then Klarion hits him with another purple beam and he slams into the ground hard enough to cut a furrow.

**"Guess I don't need that stupid cat after all."**

He looks up and waves his right hand, a torrent of water presumably launched by Garth and Tula striking another shield.

"Kcatta ruo ymene neesnu!"

I'm no good like this. I need to get into cover, and see if Artemis can lend me her crossbow. Won't do much good while he's in God Mode, but it would at least-.

**Er, Aqualad, sir? There's some sort of yellow crystal in the middle here.**

"Rrrrragh!" The water covering the ground where Klarion blocked the Atlantians' shot surges upwards and engulfs him, freezing solid as it does so. That's Kaldur, right? I can't see him.

Arrows strike the ice, embed themselves and then vaporise it. Unmakers with delayed timers. I didn't see the point but Artemis wanted them. Can't see Klarion now. Did she get him?

**Ignore the crystal. Focus on draining the ritual site.**

I see the glowing lines making up the magic circle retreat from the far edges inwards towards where Robert's kneeling. Figures flicker in the air. I think I see Batman.

**"No no no no no no!"**

Klarion rematerialises in the centre of the magic circle which immediately reignites in brilliant purple. A stomp of his foot causes the ground beneath Robert to leap upwards, throwing him into the sky. I instinctively try to generate a construct to catch him, then feel rather foolish.

No, I can't do anything else here.

**5th November  
21:50 GMT -3**

**Garth, Tula, target the barrier.**

I make it two thirds of the way to the tree line before I spot Artemis and start heading to her position. Something roars behind me but I don't stop. If the people there can't deal with it then it probably can't be dealt with. Artemis looses another arrow towards the shield before ducking back into cover. If a tree even provides cover against Klarion at the moment. I duck in behind the next tree along.

"What did you think you were doing!?"

"Our priority is to end the spell as soon as possible. Killing Klarion immediately was more likely to do that than binding him."I look back at the ritual site where he's reraised the dome shield. "Don't suppose you've got any anti-magic arrows, have you?"

"There aren't any!"

"Right. I need to get Sephtian to work on more offensive antimagic stuff."

She notches and looses again. "Is this really the time for a shopping list?!"

Oh, that's clever. The water being fired by Garth and Tula is getting turned into steam just before it hits the barrier. Kaldur worked out how to do that with the trident during one of our experimental sessions but this is the first time I've seen it used in the field. Not much use in Atlantis compared to freezing but blooming useful on the surface.

"Klarion did a number on the ring and my gun's empty. I'm out of offensive options."

**"You can't hide from me with **_**baby**_** magic. Etsat ruoy nwo enicidem."**

The howling vapour suddenly redirects towards an apparently empty area of ground. Why would-?

"AAAAAAAAGGHH!" Kaldur appears in the vapour as it turns back into water before cutting off completely. He drops to his knees. He did the intelligent thing and wore the helmet, but Ocean Master's armour isn't sealed. His hands, feet and face just got hit by boiling water.

Oh no.

**Aqualad's down. Miss Martian, get Aqualad to safety. Superboy, Troia, alternate hitting the barrier and evading. Tell me when your Spell Eaters start getting hot.**

**Right.** **You got it.**

M'gann's invisible and without the ring I can't see her, but Kaldur's steaming form rises into the air and heads back from the combat zone at high speed. I see Donna swoop in as Klarion raises his hands to the top of the dome and purple lightning lashes out from all sides.

**Cornwall, Zatanna, we need that barrier down.** From the far side I see Cornwall's cape flap as he runs back towards the circle. A lightning bolt hits him in the chest, staggering him. He steadies himself, then surges at the barrier even faster. I actually see a wave of force ripple right across it where his fist strikes it, then he plants both hands on it. Klarion looks at him in puzzlement.

"Evael Noiralk faed dna dnilb!"

Klarions glowing eyes alight on Zatanna. **"You don't have what it t**_**a**_**kes to magic **_**me**_**."**

**Zatanna, the barrier. Get the barrier down.**

Purple electricity runs through Robert, forcing him to his knees. **Robert, can you cope? We can get you out if you need-.**

"I can manage!"

"Artemis, please notch an unmaker and loose at Klarion the moment the shield fails. Shoot to kill."

**What?**

Surprise but not irritation. "I'm a utilitarian. Every moment we delay more children die. I don't care who's on the adult side, he's the most powerful of the group. We've already demonstrated that we can't hold him. Do you have a better idea? Because if so I would very much like to hear it."

Her eyes dip for a second, then she nods and pulls her bowstring taunt.

"Thank you." **Robin, I don't know what conventional explosives will do to-**

"-am!"

Billy appears in the middle of the combat zone and blinks in confusion as he takes in the scene. Klarion turns to look at him and raises his hands.

**M'gann, get him into cover!** Billy is flung sideways as a purple beam blasts through the space he had been occupying.**Billy, get over here and never teleport into a combat zone like that again.**

He scurried over as Kon, Donna, Robert and Robin all capitalise on Klarion's distraction to pound unrelentingly on the shield. I can see purple wisps of power flow into Robert before Klarion returns his attention to his assailants and fire a stream of what look like shard of purple glass from his hands directly through the shield at them. Donna evades but Kon and Robert are both struck and go down as Billy makes it into cover near me.

"It's-. It's the gem! It-!"

I hold up a hand to stop him. **Miss Martian, please add Billy to the network.**

**Added.**

**Billy, you can provide your information to everyone telepathically. What does the gem do?**

"I can? Oh, um-" **It's what caused this. It's what's keeping the worlds apart. Destroy it and we win.**

**Oh, is _that_ all?** What could we do what could we do?

**You could dig underground with your power ring and-** I hold up the dirt-encrusted ring. **Oh.**

That spinning dig thing Superman did in Christopher Reeves' Superman film would never work in real life. Phasing? **Miss Martian, come over here and take my Spell Eater. The best way to get-**

"Zatanna, stop!"

**Robin, what-?** A brilliant golden glow appears over the combat area as Nabu manifests a pointless giant ankh to pose in front of. **Who put on the fucking Helmet?**

**It was Zatanna.** A host who's familiar with magic. Nabu must be thrilled.

"Klarion. This ends **now**."

Nabu's golden ankh blast is met by a purple beam from Klarion, who doesn't look overly worried by this development. M'gann appears as she touches down besides me.

"You said Nabu didn't want to let Wally go last time."

"We can't worry about that now. She's got his full attention. Here." With some difficulty I get the thong out from under my armour. "Put it on, get under the shield, get the gem and then get out. Clear?"

"I-I'm not sure. I've been practising phasing with Uncle J'onn, but-"

"If you can't do it then you can't do it, but now would be a _very_ good time to try. Get up close to the barrier and try to duck under it."

She nods, takes the Spell Eater from me and fades from view.

Godsdamnit. I did _not_ want to see Nabu again.

**5th November  
21:53 GMT -3**

**Billy, how are things going on the other side?**

**The magicians were _way_ more powerful than they were supposed to be. Batman thought that big purple thing was sending them power.**

**And it stopped when Klarion absorbed it?**

**Er, yeah, I guess. The guy in the cloak's keeping up a shield but without the extra power we've got them on the run. Um, where's Aqualad?**

**He got badly scalded, Miss Martian put him somewhere out of the way.** Okay, Nabu and Klarion are still beam-of-warring it. I can't believe that neither of them have managed to learn anything more sophisticated. **Cornwall, can you drain Klarion's beam?**

**I can _try_.** He moves around the side of the barrier while Klarion ignores him, walking his hands around its surface as he goes. I can't tell from here whether it's having any effect.

"Billy, I think we've got things under control here. Get back to the adult side and help them get the gem."

"Okay. Um, should I tell Zatara about..." He points at Nabu. Have to say, that costume looks good on her. Better than it did on Wallace anyway. Maybe they can work something long-term out? Having Nabu back on the active roster would be useful if it turns out he can actually be trusted. Maybe I was being too cautious?

"Probably a good idea." **Superboy, Troia, Kid Flash; status reports?**

**I'm fine, but I think Superboy's bleeding under the armor.**

**Kon, how bad?**

**I'll heal in a minute. The purple.. spike.. things are fading. Spell Eater's getting pretty hot, though.**

**Troia? How's yours doing?**

**It's warm to the touch.**

**Right. Superboy, stay back until you've fully healed. Troia, start hitting the barrier again.**

**Right.** **Right.**

**What about me? I'm -ow- good to go.**

Realistically, what can Wallace do? **Do you see a jewel in the middle of the pentagram?**

**Yeah?**

**If the shield drops, grab it and get it to Nabu.**

**That's _it_?**

**Unless you've developed a magic disruption potion and brought it with you, yes.** I can feel his frustration through the link. **Kid Flash, I don't honestly think that brute force is likely to take down the barrier. Getting the jewel makes us _win_. Are you with me?**

**... Yeah, okay.**

**Garth, Tula, any-**

**Garth's looking after Kaldur.**

Damn it. **How bad?**

**He'll-. He'll get better. It looks worse than it is...**

**As long as he's not going to die we can probably fix it. Right, I need to you to scry the shield spell and tell me if we're actually _doing_ anything to it. I honestly have no idea.**

**I can do that. It'll take a moment.**

**Tell me when you have something.**

With Robert's help -I think- Nabu drives the ankh back towards Klarion's shield. Klarion snarls and makes a downwards gesture with his right hand. What did-? "Agh!" I see a purple circle form around Robert as he's sucked underground with a yelp.

**Cornwall, stay calm and hold your breath. Miss Martian, are you in position yet?**

**Almost!**

A purple beam knocks Nabu's ankh aside then Klarion starts flinging exploding purple balls up into the sky, forcing Nabu to take evasive action. Returning my attention to the circle I barely see it as the jewel disappears. I tense, but Klarion appears too caught up in his duel to notice. Nabu takes advantage of a brief lull in the explosions to fire a golden bolt of eldritch energy at the shield. Klarion seems unfazed. Is _anything_ we're doing having an effect on him?

**P-? Orange Lantern? The shield's definitely weakening, but he can restore it in a few seconds. If you want to take it down you have to keep attacking.**

**Thank you Tula.**

Then Nabu blurs and Zatanna drops a metre in the air before reassuming his costume. What?

**"When the world divided the Helmet split in two! You're not all here Nabu! And you're losing hold of that poor-"**

M'gann rises from the ground, supporting Cornwall with one arm and holding the jewel in the other.

**"-soon to be **_**dead**_**-"**

**Fate, catch!** The small yellow jewel flies towards the recovering Nabu as Cornwall heads back towards the shield dome.

**"-girl. What?"** Klarion does a double take as Nabu catches it. **"How did you get that? Give it back!"**

"No, Witch Boy, you have wrought harm enough this day. Yam eht owt emoceb eno ecno erom!"

And then things get strange. The barrier around Klarion shimmers as a tall thin figure in a dark grey robe appears in one of the other focus points, his head slightly bowed and his arms fanned out. A small forest of black thorns cover the ground but substantial portions of it appear to be on fire. I catch sight of John on the far side pulling himself free of brambles that appear to have pinned him to a tree. Batman dodges as Faust hurls a barrage of flame at him, only for it to turn on its creator as Danni seizes control of it. A barrage of green bolts slam into the shield dome from above courtesy of Guy and Stewart and are swiftly joined by an even larger ankh. Red Tornado fires a tornado at William Zard, only for him to hold up.. something, I can't see it from here, and send it up into the air at Mister Zatara, who's standing on a floating pentagram. Red Tornado realises what's happened and abandons the ranged attack, but Zatara's-

"Sdniw eb dellits."

-completely fine, right. Robert, Donna and Kon are all up and hitting the shield again, quickly joined by Marvel and Diana. Klarion appear to have abandoned the offence.

**"Oh well. Fun while it lasted."** The shield around the ritual site flickers from purple to a pale grey as a red oval opens in the space next to him. Bugging out. I'd rather capture or kill him but that doesn't seem to be on the cards. **"See ya later, armadillos. Unless I see you first!"**

Zard and Faust look around in panic and are swiftly knocked down for their distraction. Robe guy doesn't look particularly bothered. His shield appears to be holding.

**Tula, how's his shield holding up?**

**I... I'm not sure. It doesn't read like any form of magic I'm used to. If I had to describe it I'd say it's a bit like-**

Two beams of ghostly white energy pulse from his right hand, corroding Guy and Stewart's armour constructs and knocking them out of the sky.

"Green Lanterns. We will continue this another time."

**-a power ring.**

His shield collapses as he fades out of existence.

**5th November  
21:57 GMT -3**

I make my way in John's direction as my team mates and the Leaguers gather in the centre of the clearing. He appears to be dangling a piece of burned and twisted wood on the end of a shoelace while walking over to a thick patch of blackened brambles. The piece of wood jerks suddenly.

"_There_ you are."

He looks up and sees me. Yikes, that's a nasty bruise. John points at the wood. "Crack this open for me, would you?"

"And how would you like me to do _that_, exactly?"

"Well _excuse me_, but you look _just like_ this guy I know who's got a power ring." I hold it up. "Fuck me, how'd you manage that?"

"Klarion had some sort of magic dust. Managed to bypass my armour construct and Spell Eater." For a moment I consider tossing it to him and asking him to have a crack at it, but it occurs to me that John Constantine and orange power ring probably shouldn't be mixed.

"Constantine." Ah! How the heck did Batman sneak across an empty field? "You were permitted to accompany us on the understanding that you would offer technical assistance only. At what point did you decide that it would be acceptable to kill Blackbriar Thorn?"

"Just the man I was looking for. You got one of those sharp batarang things?" He holds out his right hand. Batman scowls at him. "See, the thing about _Blackbriar_ is, he doesn't exactly _die_, does he? It's like shooting the Bog God; put a bullet through his head and what have you done? There's no brain there, just more moss. Only looks Human out of habit." He wiggles his outstretched fingers again to no effect. He rolls his eyes and turns back to the wood, carefully taking a grip on an exposed section of charcoal and snapping it off. I wave him aside and hit the indicated area hard with the butt of my pistol, cracking it further. "That should do it." I stand aside and he sticks his hand in up to the elbow and reaching around inside what appears to be a hollow tree trunk. "Ow! Got the bastard." He withdraws his arm, hand holding a short but surprisingly vital thorn vine. There are a few small leaves along the length and a cluster of roots around the lower end. John looks at it for a moment, then holds it out to Batman. "Used to be I'd hand him over to Alec, but we're not really talking these days. Should take about three months for him to regrow, based on past performance. Make sure he's somewhere secure when he _does_, right?"

Batman's face eases slowly away from the scowl. He takes the proffered vine, looks it over and then places it inside his utility belt before turning away and heading for the gathering below.

"How the heck did you take down Blackbriar Thorn?"

"Sympathetic magic, mate. I had a bit of his body from last time we met." He holds up a fag butt. "He got close enough, and..." He holds up the piece of wood on the shoelace and brings the two objects together.

"Whaw. Thought you kept saying you were out of your depth with this stuff?"

"I am, you just can't see the blood in this light. Pinned me to that friggin' tree-" He nods at it. "-with his brambles and I couldn't do a thing until the purple supercharge he was getting from that yellow crystal cut off." He turns to look at the huddle. "Hadn't realised he still held a grudge. Come on, I need a lift home."

We start down the shallow incline, stepping over the remains of Blackbriar's signature attack. "What happened to your eye?"

"Got cocky, is what happened. Used an enchantment to make people not want to see me, then snuck in your mountain. Thought I might learn something about what happened. Batman spotted that no one was looking in my direction and punched it just in case." He stops for a moment and looks at me. "And you better have a bloody good reason for getting Gemma involved."

"Mob of Praexis Demons outside her house." He reluctantly nods approval before starting on again. "We left a note. Though while we're on the subject, what do you think Mister and Missus Masters would say about her going to school in Poseidonis?"

"Terry would tell you to fuck off. Cheryl would castrate you with a rusty spoon. Not sure I'd stop her."

"So that's a 'no'."

"Of course it's a 'no' you stupid... Those Atlantian kids. You had them in the mountain looking for Klarion, didn't you?"

"Yyyyyes. Not sure how much Gemma _saw_..."

"'Course she _saw_, she's a Constantine. Fffffffffff_uck_. She's gunna use a spoon on **both** of us."

"Aren't you going to stop him?"

Nabu-in-Zatanna is levitating just over the centre of the former ritual site while Wallace gestures at the place Klarion disappeared. He has a point, but if there's one thing I've learned from our last two encounters with Klarion it's that Nabu doesn't trump him.

"To what end? Klarion is chaos personified. He can**not** be contained."

Sounds like someone's not trying hard enough. I seem to remember him saying the same thing about Teekl. Guy nods at me as John and I reach the rear of the huddle. He's running a green strobe over his chest, presumably undoing whatever damage the black beam did.

"Guy, Kaldur took a pretty nasty hit. He's with a couple of other Atlantians in the bioship, would you mind getting him to an Atlantian hospital?"

"No problem. What happened to him?"

"Klarion redirected steam onto him. Gas at over one hundred degrees centigrade."

"_Yikes_. I'll get right on it."

The afterimage of a glowing green filament marks his leaving. Captain Marvel's wrapping the enchanted chain around the unconscious Zard and Faust. _They_ should be weak enough to be contained by it. Kon and Donna are standing with Diana on the far side of the group. They both look fine, but... Ah, there's Robert. Can't tell his expression with the mask on but I know it's pretty unnerving being around this many new people. Especially when the one who decides to talk to you is Batman.

"-k you sir. I-I-I really appreciate this."

"We'll need your parents' approval before this becomes definite, but you've demonstrated the skills and the character that we're looking for."

He just nods as Batman turns away and walks to where Mister Zatara is trying to stare down Nabu. "Fate!" He takes a breath, getting his worries under control. "Great Nabu. Release my daughter."

Nabu stares at him for a moment. Wait, he's not going to- "No." Shit. "Witness the havoc wrought in these hours." He spreads his arms out as if to encompass the world. "The world _needs_ Doctor Fate, and the girl's natural affinity for the mystic arts.. makes her the perfect candidate." Shit.

"You can't do that!" No, Artemis, he can. That's why no one put him on before now.

"She has her own life to live!" Robin, he doesn't care about it. We need an order-based argument, and I'm coming up with nothing. Think think think.

Wallace tries next. "Kent would never allow you to-"

"Kent Nelson did object most strenuously. So I released his spirit to the afterlife. He is gone."

I've got nothing. I've got nothing.

Mister Zatana slumps slightly, then spreads his arms to the side. "Then take me instead. My-"

"No!" John pushes his way forwards. "You! Nabu! Take me."

The venom in Zatana's glare is tempered with surprise. "J**ohn**, this is not the time to-"

"Shut up." John pokes him in the chest. "She needs you. Well? Magic's run in my family's blood for thousands of years. I'd be a far better host than-"

Nabu glares at him. "You?! No! You reek of Demons and damnation. You are barely less chaotic than Klarion! You are _useless_ to me."

Zatara gently pushes John aside. "But I am not."

"True. In many ways you would be a superior host. But if I remove the Helmet, what guarantee have I that you will don it?"

"My word." Oh gods. This is actually going to happen, isn't it? "Ekat em daetsni."

Nabu looks down at him for a moment, then floats down to the ground. John isn't any happier about this than I am. "Giovanni, don't do it. We can find-"

Mister Zatara puts his right hand on John's right shoulder. "John... This time, it isn't your fault." He looks at him for a moment, then walks over to Nabu. Nabu looks at him for a moment, then raises his hands and lifts the Helmet from his head. As Zatanna's face is revealed the uniform fades away. Still under Nabu's control, she lowers it to her chest. Her eyes open narrowly at first, then they widen.

"Dad!"

"Zatanna!" They embrace. I don't suppose there's any chance he'll have an attack of common sense and just throw the bloody thing away? From the devastated look on John's face I don't think so. "Remember. I love you." Mister Zatara kisses his daughter on the forehead, before taking the Helmet from her unresisting hands. He looks over our group. "Take care of my girl."

"You have my word." Batman, that's not going to fix this. Gahh! If my fucking ring wasn't broken I'd fly that stupid Helmet into the sun!

Mister Zatara raises the Helmet over his head and Zatanna belatedly realises what's about to happen. "No! It was _my_ fault!" Robin takes hold of her from behind. She struggles, but he's far too strong. "Dad, don't-!" He closes his eyes as he lowers the Helmet. "Dad!"

His eyes blaze golden as Nabu takes control. Then uniform appears, and we all know that's it. Mister Zatara's gone. I'm glad the Helmet hides his face. It makes him easier to hate. He looks at Zatanna for a moment, then turns towards Faust and Zard. "Leave these to Fate." He gestures at them, and then he and they rise into the air before disappearing in a ball of golden light. Zatanna drops to her knees and my team mates surround her to offer support.

What do I do?

No. What do I want?

I walk up to John and put my face close to his.

"John, I'm not prepared to accept this. Can I assume that you're not either? "

The look he gives me, I can see why Demons are scared of him. "Too bleedin' right I'm not."

"Right. Get back to London and get some stuff together. I need to get the ring fixed. Then..." I nod to myself. No doubt at all. "Then we're going to work out how to kill Nabu."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

.

**5th November**  
**20:59 GMT -3**

I take a moment to admire the blasted landscape. Frustrating as impotently wailing on Klarion's shield was, I'm still inclined to call this a success. William in particular impressed me with his resolve. Of course, _I_ knew that this was almost certainly this parallels version of the World Without Grownups storyline, but there was no reason for him to believe that anything other than oblivion awaiting him post transformation. Anyway, it wasn't as if either side could help each other, and whoever the adults were up against they couldn't have been as powerful as Klarion. William accepted my idea of utilising the Sword of Beowulf to enable him to participate in the fight in place of his usual Captain Marvel abilities. Turns out that the Sword agreed with Shazam's character assessment and even without the wisdom of Soloman William is sufficiently intelligent to master 'stay in cover and fire lightning at the bad guy'.

Wotan, Zard, Faust and what's left of Blackbriar Thorn sit bound in the Atlantean magic-suppression chains I took out of subspace once I'd crushed the focus gem. Batman, Red Tornado, Wonder Woman, Mister Zatara and Lantern Stewart were _managing_ I suppose, but even Batman doesn't carry the equipment that I do. Bit of a blow that Klarion got away but if I'm honest with myself I know that I'd have had to be _very_ lucky to complete an assimilation on someone like him. Now we just have to explain to Nabu that if he doesn't give Zatanna back he's going to get dogpiled by twelve superheroes who'll swiftly teach him the value of teamwork and we can retire for the evening.

Why isn't that happening?

"Take me instead. My skills are already at their peak, my body is physically stronger, better able to withstand the strain of your power."

Oh. That's actually quite clever. In any fight there's room for things to go wrong. If he can be persuaded to just take himself off we can throw the Helmet into the sun without taking the risk. I knew there was a reason I was studying under these people.

"All true. But if I remove the Helmet what guarantee have I that you will don it?"

"My word." He's a magnificent actor, really. I must go and see his magic show at some point. "Ekat em daetsni." Hm? Take me instead? Would that work on Nabu? Might be _over_playing it. Whatever. Nabu appears to be taking the bait, dropping down to ground level. Hah! High heels! I hadn't noticed those until just now! Right, right, Helmet off, come on. Some of us have things to do this evening.

"Dad!"

"Zatanna!" They embrace. "Remember, I love you." Wait. He isn't actually going to..? Yes, yes he is. I'm stunned. He's actually going to do it. He kisses Zatanna on the forehead, before pulling the Helm from her grasp. He looks to the Leaguers. "Take care of my girl."

Batman replies for them. "You have _my_ word." What? There's-. What?

Zatara raises the Helmet- 

Oh, _this is __completely __**stupid**_!

As Zatara goes to put the Helmet on his head and seal his fate -hah!- I extend a grapple line and pull it from his hands.

"Hu..? What are you doing!"

"Something intelligent for a change."

I catch the Helm in both hands and look at it for a moment with OrangeVision. It shows me more than it used to; Father Box's work I suppose. The pale gold aura of order-based protective charms is present, but there are tiny cracks of orange light. He has opened himself to the idea of Want. An error, I think.

"I will remind Nabu who rules this world and it is _not_ the dead! Ring! Assimilate!"

Orange light invades the Helm from where my hands touch it. Almost immediately I feel Nabu attempt to resist. Insufficient.

"Identity theft twenty percent complete."

"Your selfish desire for a body stolen from another undermines your defences, _Wraith_."

Another surge of orange. All but the front piece is mine, now.

"Identity theft seventy percent complete."

"This world is **mine**! These people are **mine**! You! Are! **Mine**!"

Everything but the eye sockets is glowing orange. They glow with arcane power as he tries something, anything, to stop the process. But my wards are at full strength, and he has no mortal vessel to bind him to the world.

"Now you will learn what it is like to wear you."

There's a final flash of orange as the process is complete.

"Identity theft complete. Nabu of Cilia, you belong to the Orange Lantern Corps."

The Helm is now faintly glowing orange. The outline is the same, but the eye sockets are slightly narrower and there is an Orange Lantern sigil over the faceplate. The sigil looks like it's been cut, but the surface remains smooth as I run a thumb over it.

"You… you made me break my word…"

"Dad, he-"

I hold up my left hand. "No, no, he has a point. That sort of thing can have mystical significance." I take the helm in both hands again and hold it up level with my eyes. "Lantern Nabu. Direct command. You will be obedient and subservient to Giovanni Zatara in all matters. Confirm command."

"i CoNfIrM."

The voice is strained, distorted, but it's unquestionably him. "Glad to hear it." Turning, I use my right hand to toss the helm to Zatara. He catches it, still looking more than a little stunned at the turn of events. "You'll make a better Fate than _he_ ever did."

He looks around. He moves his mouth as if to speak, but no sound emerges. He looks to the ground, then his daughter, and then the Orange Lantern Corps Helmet. Then, he turns it and places it on his head.

There's a flash of orange-tainted golden light as he rises into the air. Another flare of light as a similarly miscoloured ankh appears behind him and a gust of wind blasts out in all directions. He remains floating, and raises his hands to stare at them as if seeing them for the first time. He's gained a cape and his suit looks like it's been dry cleaned.

"I'm… I'm in control. I can feel his power, his knowledge. They are mine now!"

"And still you fulfil your oath." I roll my shoulders and stretch my neck. Not a bad day's work. Shame about all the deaths, but if these people weren't such a bunch of _fucking sleepwalkers_…

The assembled League members are staring gormlessly at the newly ascended Giovanni Zatara. I interpose myself. Time to let them know how I feel about their inactivity. 

"Aaaaggghhhh! Are you all! Completely! Retarded!?" Shocked expressions. "Aaaaaaaaaggghhhh! Right!" I transition to the bound prisoners and haul them up by the chains. "Since I clearly have to fix every _fucking_ problem myself around here, I'll deal with these gentlemen as well." A burst at FTL takes my prisoners and me over the North Pole before a Boom Tube takes me to my actual destination over the Great Wall of China. Lantern Stewart didn't look particularly on the ball but that and Father Box's efforts at stealth should prevent him from locating me immediately.

Father Box deflects the radar scans as I take a look around. Now, where would Chairman Jiang of the People's Republic of China's Standing Committee on Metahuman Affairs be at this time of the morning?

RRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Resume.

**5th November  
22:16 GMT -3**

I sit cross-legged in front of my personal lantern, my hands palms up in my lap. The tainted ring sits in them. Lantern Stewart hesitated when I asked for a lift back, then couldn't get me here fast enough when I queried the wisdom of leaving the Ophidian to its own devices. Sadly, it looks like mere exposure to the lantern isn't enough to fix the ring. If I can't make this work I'm looking at a month to create a new one and then struggling on for a further six with no AI support. I'd hoped it wouldn't come to this, but it's time to ask the Ophidian for help. I stare deep into the lantern's glowing core.

"Ophidian."

No, of course that won't work. It doesn't have ears. It doesn't have eyes. It perceives the universe as shades of desire. I close my eyes and try to see as it does, as the ring lets me see.

Ophidian.

Not enough. It understands need most easily. Why do I want it?

Firstly, the ring is mine. No. The ring is **me**. Over the past few months it has become so much a part of who I am and what I do that I'm not sure how I'd cope without it. It **should** be here, it **should** work, it is **wrong**

_Wrong._

that I am denied it.

Secondly, the ring is mine. It is both my property and the tool I use to gain all other things that I want. It is the weapon and the medicine that protects and restores me. If it is vulnerable then everything is vulnerable, and

_Unacceptable!_

that is not acceptable.

Third, Zatanna Zatara is mine. She is my friend, my team mate, a part of my ingroup. Giovanni Zatara is mine. He is my teacher whom I respect

_Mine!_

and a vital component of Zatanna's happiness. If he can be taken from me in the name of expediency, who else is at risk? Might Zeus decide to send Diana to Tartarus? Might the Guardians decide to investigate Alan's elemental nature by dissecting him? I need this ring to protect those who are mine.

_Mine!_

_ba__bum.__ba__bum._

Something, there's something... I think I can feel it, a long way off but coming closer and _so_ powerful. I hear a pulse, a heartbeat, the pure idea of avarice shorn of all particularity. Keep going.

Fourth, I will not be cowed. I am not prepared to let Nabu get away with strong-arming us. I don't care who or what

_Mine!_

_ba__bum._

he is. And with the ring? This is something to strive for that is on my level. I could chase muggers all year and be bored to tears by the level of threat they pose. Nabu needs someone like me to stop him. Everyone

_Greater purpose?_

_BA__bum._

needs me to stop him.

I feel it's eyes on me now. Last step.

Fifth, these events defy my ideas of how the universe should work and what it should become. The old should not constrain the new, should not force it to fit into its patterns. The world is **wrong**. This should not

_Should not be_

be happening and I

_BA__bum._

_happening and I will not_

will not tolerate it!

_BA__bum._

_tolerate it!_

This place is mine, not his! _Mine, not his!_

These people are mine, not his! _Mine, not his!_

_BA__bum._

Zatanna is

_"Ours."_ Around me is the colossal presence of the Ophidian, strange and overwhelming and yet... somehow familiar. _"My Agent. We are of one mind. The Order-Lord's actions are unacceptable."_

The ring is damaged.

_"Yes."_

Will you aid me?

_"Declare our intent to the universe. Make your oath to __**me**__."_

_BA__BUM._

My eyes snap open. I can still feel it, the heartbeat of universal avarice.

_BA__BUM._

And I know what I want to say.

"This is my cause, this is my fight!  
Shine through the void with orange light!  
I've claimed all within my sight!  
To keep what is mine, that is my right!"

The ring rises from my hands, shaking, orange light shining

_BA__BUM._

under Klarion's muck like sunlight through a tear in a blackout sheet. The corruption burns away, flaking off and disintegrating

_BA__BUM._

as the ring purifies itself. I gingerly hold out my left hand and it gently slips on, a wave of orange passing through my body. In the quiet I hear the heartbeat still.

_BA__BUM._

"Thank you, my Embodiment."

_"Agent. I am with you. Go forth in my name."_

I stand, taking my personal lantern in my right hand and putting it on my desk. I know what I want to do, and I know how to do it. I repair my armour and return it to subspace as I raise the ring to my left ear. "John, prepare a summoning ritual. I'll bring the focus, and with a little luck I'll have Zatanna and Teekl with me." I lower the ring. His phone will ring until he picks it up and then it will play that message. I take a deep breath, then open my door and walk towards the training room.

As I see it, this is a kidnapping. Nabu won't harm his host himself, even if we attacked him. Not that _that's_ a good idea, not until we have a much better idea of how he works at least. Who can we ask? Klarion? Probably not. Alan's still got most of Mister Nelson's books. The ring can sort through them for information in no time. I vaguely remember something about him encountering Nabu for the first time somewhere in the Middle East, but I might just be remembering Doctor Strange's origin story. The other members of the Justice Society might remember something Mister Nelson or Nabu himself said from last time he was active. Alan, Diana, Jay and Danni would certainly tell me anything that might help. Mister Grant? He probably would, we haven't really spoken much.

Wait. Am I overthinking this? Nabu said that Mister Nelson had passed on to whatever afterlife awaited him. I know where his grave is. Could we.. talk.. to him? Nabu said that Mister Nelson didn't approve of his decision and it would only be a temporary ritual. I'm not exactly thrilled at the idea, but I can't think of a logical reason not to. Have to ask when I see John next.

Do I bring the rest of the team in on this? No, not yet. I don't know how telepathic Nabu is, or how good at reading people. Need to know only at this stage.

"Recognised, Robin, B zero one, Superboy, B zero four, Miss Martian, B zero five, Artemis, B zero eight, Zatanna, B zero nine."

I keep my face neutral as I walk towards them. If I'm keeping this from them for now -or at least keeping how far I intend to go- then I need to get Zatanna alone in a little while. From the way Robin and M'gann are supporting her I assume that she's still in shock. Zatanna herself is weeping, her eyes bleary and her whole body shaking.

Kon notices me first. "You got your ring working okay?" I nod as I keep coming. "Where's Kaldur?"

"Hospital, an Atlantean one. He's-" I take a moment to have the ring check on him. "-going to be fine."

The group come to a halt as I reach them. I look Zatanna over for a moment and then step forwards and hug her. As I do so I flare my aura outwards. With all that's happened today I doubt anyone will think much of that. It serves to camouflage the sonic stabiliser effect which cancels the noise of what I'm about to say. As she relaxes into the hug I put my chin on her shoulder and whisper into her ear.

"On the flight back I had a few ideas about getting Nabu out of your father. If you're up to it, come and find me in half an hour."

I pull away, hands resting on her shoulders for a moment. She's still crying, silently, but the tremors have faded a little and there's a focus in her eyes that wasn't there before.

We're coming for you, Nabu.

_BA__BUM. __BA__BUM._ _**BA**__**BUM.**_

**Half-hearted**

**6th November  
01:51 GMT**

At this time of the morning London's streets are almost completely silent. A couple of hours from now the first delivery vans of the day will make the first deliveries. Five hours from now people will wake up to find that they slept through the murder of hundreds of thousands of children. I imagine that they'll consider themselves lucky. Will they reflect -as they should- that their offspring's survival was a matter of pure chance? A few hours this way or that and the majority of casualties could so easily have been in Europe rather than... I don't actually know where they are. I doubt we'll know the final death toll for days. Anywhere rush hour was, I suppose. The Americas and East Asia, perhaps?

Teekl's walking on my left. She's at lion size, ignoring her surroundings and keeping pace with me in a decidedly non-catlike manner. Zatanna's on my right. She's got her arms crossed at her stomach and every so often she rubs her upper arms with her hands. I had thought that she might be cold, but she kept doing it after I extended my environmental shield around her. I'm not sure... I don't know what else I can say to support her. She used the half hour to change and clean herself up a bit. I'm finding her face a little odd like this; part of cleaning up involved removing her make up. I hadn't realised that she was wearing any. I suppose that's the aim when it's applied with skill.

I should say something.

...

I look down at the perfectly cubular cardboard box in my hands. Best I could do for a talisman of order. I hope making it with the ring isn't a pr-

"Do you..?" Zatanna looks away from me to her right. "Do you really think this will work?"

"This?" I exhale. "No, it's... It's not very likely. I mean, it _might_ work. I don't know enough about order magic to really know, but I would have thought... I mean, if they were likely to take exception, I don't think Nabu would have done it."

She stops dead in her tracks, her face creasing on the verge of tears again. "Then why, why are we..?"

I turn to face her and put my hands on her shoulders. "Because it might work. Because in the short time I've had to think about this, it's the least violent thing I've been able to come up with and I think we should try it before trying something riskier. Because I don't _think_, even if he finds out about it, Nabu will do anything about this."

"Couldn't.. I mean, the Ophidian..?"

"Could she beat him in a straight fight?" Zatanna nods, still looking down at the ground. "Maybe. Maybe. If she had some way to stop him just.. teleporting away. But I sincerely doubt that Mister Zatara would survive the fight, at least not without being-" I flick my right hand in Teekl's direction. "-assimilated. Also, I'm... Nabu... I haven't seen him at full power, as powerful as he is _now_, with your father as a host. It's.. hard to judge exactly what he's capable of." She nods and I see drops of water splash onto the pavement. No, that won't do. I move my right hand to her chin and force her head up."Zatanna, listen to me. This is not a murder. This is a kidnapping. Whatever happens today, we **will** free your father. I just don't want to give you false expectations. This will take some time, it could be weeks, months, even years. Not everything we come up with will work, but the end result will be Nabu either back in the Helmet or dead and your father free. Do you understand me?"

Her breath is ragged and she only meets my eyes for a moment before looking away, but she manages a nod. A little shaky, but I'll take it. "Okay. O-okay."

I step in for a hug before turning and slipping my right arm behind her back. "Come on. Not far now." John phoned me back while things were calming down in the cave. He's at the Tate Club now. He said he'd try to get Clarice and Albert there but that he couldn't promise. I try scanning the place but -surprise surprise- the ring can't tell me that it's there at all. I had to tell John about the scry ward problem because I wanted him to try and come up with a way around it. Could he have warded the place **because** of me? Because of Nabu? Or would a club built to host magic users of dubious legal status have been built with wards incorporated into its design?

"Hey, um. How..?" Her voice sounds a little steadier. "You called the Ophidian 'she'?"

"Yes. Nottt sure how I know that, actually. We had a brief chat when I got back to the cave. She doesn't like what Nabu's done any more than I do."

"Why does..? I mean, I'm not _complaining_ about the help, but.. I didn't think..?"

"Because you-." 'Because you're mine' probably isn't the way to go with this. "Because you're my friend, part of my team, part of how my.. world.. _**is**_. Should be. What Nabu's done, disrupts that, hurts _you_. And since I'm her Agent that.. _reduced_her as well."

This whole thing shouldn't take more than a couple of hours. Zatanna needs sleep. I can go without if I need to but I don't think there's much I can really do to fix the world after something like this. Oh! Damn it, I need to go back to Gotham and pay the people at Tikka Nights for dinner and check up on Miss Robinson. Ah, both of those can wait for a more civil hour, I want to be around in case Zatanna needs something.

"This... John Constantine. Who is he? I know you've talked about him and I know Dad didn't like-"

"Doesn't. Doesn't like."

Her eyes flick up to me for a moment, then she nods. "**Doesn't** like him, but I don't know why. And he tried to take the Helmet."

"John..." Where to start? "You're probably better off asking him. Who he _is_, well, um, born in Liverpool, mother died in childbirth, brought up by his father. His father was murdered by a serial killer known as The Family Man about seven years ago which means the only people left in his immediate family are his sister Cheryl and-"

"Gemma. His niece."

"Yep. He's been involved with magic since secondary school. Not particularly powerful but cunning, intelligent and knowledgeable. Don't think we're going to _outmuscle_ Nabu so he's probably the sort of person we need."

"But how did-. How _does_ he know Dad?"

"I really don't know. You dad performed on stage in the West End during the nineties so they might have met then. Clarice... Ms Sackville mentioned that she knew, um, both your parents. **Anyway**, John doesn't... The things he's been involved in over the years, a lot of his friends have died as a result. That might be why your dad was so worried. I don't know why they fell out, or when."

"Is he a.. British superhero?"

"Uhoow, um, I wouldn't... Not in the conventional sense. He does fight supernatural opponents but, no secret identity, no costume, he's not exactly an icon of clean living and he frequently uses his arcane abilities for personal gain. Also, he doesn't _think_ of himself as being one."

"Has he fought anyone like Nabu before?"

"His most powerful opponent to date was a being known as The First of the Fallen. At the time, he was the de facto ruler of Hell."

"He.. beat.. Lucifer?"

"No, Lucifer left of his own accord about, um, thirty years ago? Threw everyone out and locked the gates behind him."

"The.. Plague of Ghosts? That was Lucifer leaving _Hell_?"

"Yes. Well, you understand I haven't been able to ask anyone _directly_ involved, but as far as I know, yes. The whole.. **mess**.. only started to get sorted out when Duma and Remiel reopened it. They have de jure authority over the place, but the Demons listened to the First. John outsmarted him repeatedly, and he died with a golden two-pronged sword embedded in his chest. So, yes, fought and beat. If anyone can work out how to free your father, it's him."

**6th November  
01:59 GMT**

There wasn't anyone on the door when we arrived at The Tate Club, though that didn't really surprise me. The cleaning staff -at least, the ones who clean the more mundane areas- would have left an hour ago. Once inside the building I have no trouble scanning its interior and locating John in one of the first floor rooms. Since I don't want anyone phoning the police I light the way through the empty halls with the ring rather than putting the lights on. It's nothing like as creepy as I thought it would be. I mean, this is the centre of borderline evil magic in London, shouldn't there be nameless _things_ skittering just in the corners of my eyes or something? It could be the Spell Eater, but Zatanna doesn't seem to be picking up anything either.

She's leaning on me a little more than she was and she appears to have stopped crying. I wish I could do more but I've never been in the position she's in. My grandparents are all dead but for three of them it was after a prolonged period of ill health and my paternal granddad died before I was born. Everyone else I... I suppose the nearest I've felt to how she's feeling was in the training scenario after I found out that Alan and Diana were dead, but in that case we were already doing everything we could to fight the things responsible. I also know how **I** reacted. I don't _think_ Zatanna would do anything that extreme while there was an alternative but I'm probably going to hold off sharing my knowledge of demonology for a little while just in case.

The closest stairs up to the first floor are a little out of the way. They're also fairly narrow and in a part of the building that's less well decorated than the bits we just walked through. I suppose that's because they don't want regular guests coming up here by mistake. Or maybe it's a metaphor about looking behind the façade? Or maybe this is just part of the 'below stairs' part of the building. Not sure. Doesn't matter. I release my hold on Zatanna to let her go up first and then follow along behind her. Yep, cleaning trolleys. Zatanna stops on the landing and I point to the door leading to the main corridor. Definitely better decorated through here. The carpet's complex pattern is slightly faded.. ah, I see, built in runes. Oooor possibly just mystic-looking nonsense. The lights on the walls are designed to look like candle sconces and the ceiling is decorated by plaster ceiling roses. Zatanna waits for me to put my arm around her again before we head in the direction of the room John's occupying.

I go to push the door open and then realise that if John's actively doing anything that may be a bad idea. Doesn't _look_ like he is but the ring doesn't detect magic energy. Or maybe I just haven't learnt how to yet? I reach forwards with my left and knock. Inside, the ring shows me John sit up from painting on the floor with a brush with a look of confusion on his face.

"Yeah?!"

I push open the door then stand aside for Zatanna to enter. Over her shoulder I see John's face go from confused to stunned. On the bare wooden floor John's painted some sort of summoning pattern. It doesn't look like the one for Demons; those are generally just a circle surrounded by warding sigils. This is angular, straight lines and arcs in regular patterns with a central space constructed from many straight lines overlapping each other. Next to him is a small pot of white paint and he's still showing the bruise Batman gave him. As I walk into the room I play a strobe of orange light over it to fix the damage. He's left his coat and jacket in a pile in the corner of the room, along with what looks like a rolled up carpet.

Zatanna shuffles nervously. "Um, hi." John sits back on his haunches as he looks at her. "I.. I want to thank you for trying to take.. for offering to take the Helmet from-."

"No, no, it's... Giovanni, I owed.. I owe him. It's..." He tilts his head back to look at the ceiling. "Shit. You look just like..." He trails off, then pushes himself to his feet.

"Like.. who?"

"Like your mum. I mean, she was blonde, but apart from that." I glance at Zatanna. Don't really see it myself. John goes to pat his pockets, looking for a cigarette packet that's still in his jacket. He appears to realise this and looks over to it before deciding against getting one. Teekl walks over to the carpet and slouches against it, eyes fixed on John.

I float the perfect box into the centre of the design and release it. Zatanna looks puzzled. "You're going to use that?"

John nods and walks around to the far side of the painted shapes. "The whole point of Neo Vodoun is that regular stuff works just as well as idols of whatsit or icons of bumfluff. As far as most people are concerned a cardboard box _is_ regularih'y and structure, much more than anything obviously magical."

"The box is exactly one metre cubed. The corrugations are perfectly regular and it contains one A four sheet of plain white paper. The Elemental will need something to manifest in."

"Yeah, we're not going for an Elemental. If we're serious about getting someone to overrule Nabu, we need someone higher up than that."

"Another Lord of Order?" Zatanna looks understandably worried. "Is that really a good idea?"

"Things like that, they need something to bind them to the world. Thiss..." He waves his right hand at the still drying paint. "This isn't enough to anchor one for more than a few minutes. If it looks like it's found a way to stick around, we can wreck the floor and break its connection."

"But I thought the drawings were supposed to protect the people performing the ritual?"

"With Demons, yeah. Lords of Order are a different kettle of fish. If we act with respect and don't do anything obviously chaotic it'll probably go okay. Not saying he's just going to say 'yes' or anything..."

"Didn't Nabu say you were chaotic?"

John give a humourless laugh. "I'm wearing a charm that should make me look a bit more neutral. But if I'm on best behaviour he'll probably take it anyway. The one we're going to try and get hold of is supposed to be pretty diplomatic."

Zatanna nods. "Where should I stand?"

"Just over there." There are three points coming off the edge of the design. John's already next to one, Zatanna takes the second and I remove my Spell Eater and I stand on the third.

"Are my tattoos going to be a problem?"

"Shouldn't think so. He might not be able to _see_ you, but it doesn't really affect how well _you_ can use magic. Right, first step. Paul, you see the design on the floor?"

"Yes?"

"Can you extend it into three dimensions?"

Ring, analyse.

Logical geometric progression available.

"Yes." I give the ring the nod and orange lines appear in the air mirroring the design on the floor.

"Can you do _more_ than three dimensions?"

Um. "Not without practise. Um, do we need-?"

"No, we shouldn't _need_ it, it's just..." He sighs. "Okay, the ritual's simple enough. Just say: 'By', then the names of three orderly things, then 'Lord Kilderkin of Order, I summon you'. I'll go first, then Paul and then you. Remember, this is _Neo_Vodoun. The more mundane the orderly thing is, the better. I'll say again, it's not like with a Demon. If you get it wrong it shouldn't matter _too_ much, we'll just keep going until we get it right. If you can't think of something, just stay silent until you do. There's no rush. If I've started, all three of us need to have a go no matter what's going on in the middle. Anything you want t'ask?"

"How do we.. talk to it?"

"**Really** politely. Don't try to appeal to his emotions, he doesn't really have any. Use logic, rational arguments and back it up with evidence. Don't talk over each other. Take the time to think what you're going to say through before you start. He won't mind waiting but he'll get annoyed if you don't express yourself clearly." She nods. "Okay then. A**hem**. By red letter boxes, red phone boxes and driving on the left, Lord Kilderkin of Order, I summon you."

"By a perfect diamond, by pure white light and the music of the spheres, Lord Kilderkin of Order, I summon you."

There's a short pause while Zatanna tries to come up with something. "By the passage of time, gravity and electricity, Lord Kilderkin of Order, I summon you." 

**6th November  
02:07 GMT**

Control of construct lost.

The orange light still floats in the air but the filament connecting it to the ring is visibly severed. Paint from John's abandoned tin streams through the air in defiance of gravity and replaces the orange with matte white. I don't think there was that much paint in the tin. We hold our breath for a moment as it finishes but nothing further happens. At least they've noticed us.

John decides that we've waited long enough. "By brick walls, coastal defences and the national grid, Lord Kilderkin of Order, I summon you."

Um... "By Planck length, the Avogadro constant and the degree centigrade, Lord Kilderkin of Order, I summon you."

Zatanna thinks for a moment. I can sympathise. If we have to go around again I'm going to be having trouble myself. "By democratic elections, bank accounts and school timetables, Drol Nikredlik fo Redro, I nommus uoy."

The cardboard box in the centre of the ritual space rises smoothly into the air and.. shrinks... No, not shrinking! It's expanding, but... My eyes ache and I have to blink and look away as the box opens up in what appears to my limited ability to perceive them to be new spatial dimensions. Limiting myself to brief glances I think I can see the piece of paper inside it through some of them. I think it's _looking_ at me.

Objective accomplished, I guess.

After perhaps ten seconds the box seems to calm down. Now that it's no longer inwardly unfolding it doesn't hurt to look at but I start to feel cross eyed when I try following the line of one of its sides from corner to corner. Then, with no real warning, a bald fat man with a Fu Manchu beard, melon skin and pointy ears wearing a navy blue open robe, loincloth and quite a lot of jewellery materialises within the centre of the ritual space. He's holding the multidimensional box with no apparent difficulty and floats off the ground with his legs bent up under him. If he were standing on the ground he'd probably be about one metre sixty tall. As it is he's above us and is holding the box at convenient head height.

"I have the **honour** to be the personal **slave** of **Lord Kilderkin**, a **Manifestation** of **Order**, here incarnated in the form of a sheet of paper."

Part way between sublime and ridiculous. I'm not sure how the thing is supposed to be 'orderly'. His eyes aren't really focusing on us. Zatanna and I look at each other and then over to John.

"Miss Zatanna Zatara." The box doesn't turn. The space around and within the box distorts and the box **is** facing Zatanna."You mixed two forms of magic during an unfamiliar ritual contrary to the instructions of your moderatus. This is an incorrect procedure."

She looks at me then at John in a minor panic. I make a small shrugging gesture. John nods at the box. She opens her mouth and closes it, getting herself together. "Lord Kilderkin, I apologise if I have offended you."

There is a brief pause. Is Kilderkin thinking about it or waiting for one of us to speak? "Your apology is irrelevant and unnecessary. You acted contrary to both order and good sense. You are young and have been chastised by one who is your senior. How you feel about it, your degree of 'sorrow', is irrelevant. In species such as yours maturation is often marked by a gradual transition from chaotic to more orderly forms of behaviour. You are not yet fully mature. Endeavour not to repeat your mistake." The universe within the ritual space warps again and the box is facing John. "It is unusual for one such as you to call forth one such as I. Speak your piece."

"Kilderkin, Giovanni Zatara is my friend and Zatanna's father. Nabu used Zatanna as a hostage to force him to agree to allow Nabu to use him as a host. We'd like to request that you instruct Nabu to release Giovanni, and are prepared to negotiate an exchange to facilitate that."

"Please wait a moment while I review his case history." The space within the box spins and _looking away looking away!_"Please confirm; to the best of your knowledge, is the Lord of Chaos named 'Klarion the Witch Boy' presently active on this planet?"

John points at me. If spending time with Diana has taught me anything, it's that being completely honest doesn't mean you have to say _everything_ you know. "My understanding-" Space distorts again and I force myself to maintain focus. "-of the term 'Lord of Chaos' is not good enough to reliably answer that question. I can confirm that there is a magic user by the name of Klarion active on this planet. During our first encounter I either cut or substantially reduced his ability to use magic. When last I saw him he was dependant on an unidentified type of Elemental to power his spells. As such, I am not sure that he still qualifies."

"How was this achieved?"

"He used his cat, Teekl, as his familiar and bond to the Plane of Chaos." I lift my ring to display it to him. "I am an Orange Lantern. Assimilating Teekl allowed me to have her close the link. My understanding is that it will be difficult for him to form a replacement familiar bond."

"As a Lord of Chaos Klarion had access to extremely large amounts of arcane power. However, raw power is not his only strength. Anyone who manages to become a Lord of Chaos would have to demonstrate an exceedingly high level of arcane skill." Something twists within the box. "Skill enough to generate a planar fracture to separate adults from children, for example."

"My Lord, while I will not deny that he is dangerous he did _that_ as part of a group, and despite Bedlam's power he used a crystal to channel the energy to make the ritual work. Furthermore, the ritual site was warded against scrying. Even if Nabu had a host the moment the spell started he would not have been able to locate it faster than we did."

"I have more faith in Lord Nabu's abilities than that. If he had a host earlier he could have hunted Klarion and the other participants down before this became an issue."

"If.. that's.. your price, _we_ can do that."

"It is not. Lord Nabu's skill set makes him uniquely capable in that regard. Though it is within my power to overrule Lord Nabu's decision I am strongly minded not to do so. What can you offer to counterbalance the loss of a Lord of Order in the field?"

"Klarion's familiar."

Another distortion results in Kilderkin looking at Teekl, who stands and regards him with decidedly unfriendly eyes."RrAAAooooooowwwww."

"She currently provides him with no power. I doubt that you could return her to him even if you wanted to and I do not believe that you do want to. Were she active your offer would be worthy of consideration. As it is I see no value in it."

"If people find out that Lords of Order take over people's bodies they will want nothing to do with you."

The box orientates on Zatanna again. "I do not believe that you are correct. You are distraught at the loss of your father, while worldwide millions grieve for their lost children. You will find that most of them would consider the loss of your father an acceptable sacrifice in order to prevent either a repetition of that event and to prevent other similar events from occurring in future. As you grow older you will come to understand the value of objective utility. You father may have sacrificed himself for you, but by doing so he will save far more lives than he could have done separate from Nabu. Furthermore, I believe that you have incorrectly predicted the actions of your superiors."

What's that supposed to mean? "Alright then." John's face hardens. "Exactly what would you want in order to set Giovanni free?"

"Something of proportionate value. Since the primary justification for his presence is the reciprocal presence of a Lord of Chaos, you will find me far more amenable to negotiation if Klarion is dead. If, as you say, he has been significantly weakened by you denying him use of his familiar then this task should be well within your abilities. Is there anything further you wish to discuss?"

**6th November  
02:19 GMT**

"Oh, Zatanna, poppet." Ms Sackville gives Zatanna a boney hug. "John told me what Nabu did to Giovanni, that beastly thing!"

"Zatanna Zatara, Ms Clarice Sackville."

She was sitting at her accustomed table when we got back downstairs but got up when she got a look at Zatanna. Mr Chase has gone to fetch a pot of tea. The lights immediately above us are on but the rest are off. The other tables are bare and the dark wood makes the place look even gloomier. Ours has a basic tablecloth and.. a photo album. Ms Sackville leads Zatanna to a chair and then sits down herself. I sit on Zatanna's other side, John sits next to me and Teekl flops down behind Zatanna and starts licking her right forepaw. Zatanna looks kind of drained. She didn't fall apart after Kilderkin and his slave vanished back into the Plane of Order or whatever it's called but I think she's still in shock over the whole thing.

Ms Sackville pulls the album over. "I had Albert get this out of the loft." She opens it a little way in from the beginning. For a moment I wonder if it's going to be some black and white tissue-paper-between-the-pages job, but it's full colour. "We took these when your parents were in London, before you were born." Zatanna nods and pulls it closer.

"I didn't... Were you friends?"

"Not sure I'd say _that_. Your father might have grown up with stage magic, but he was still finding his feet with the real thing when we met."

I see a photo which looks like it was taken in the room we're sitting in now. Albert looks younger, although still hard worn. Mister Zatara looks younger as well. Ms Sackville looks exactly the same. Misses Zatara... I'm not sure what John meant earlier. She doesn't look _that_ much like Zatanna. I mean, there's a _resemblance_, but it's not **all** that. I don't remember Sindella Zatara from the comics at all though I had the ring acquire pictures when I started researching Zatanna. Don't know exactly how she died, but it was some time before Zatanna was two. The photo looks as if someone walked up to the group and gave them a few seconds to pose before taking it.

Come to think of it, I've not... No, the ring can't track.. ah. Her paternal grandparents are both deceased, though she has aunts, uncles and cousins in Italy. Nothing on her mother's family. What exactly is she going to do now? Is she going to move over there? Does she even speak Italian? She can _probably_ manage on her own for a while, depends how long dealing with Nabu takes. Have to ask her about it, tomorrow.. well, later today.

Zatanna turns the page and Ms Sackville pulls her chair around a little towards her. "How did it go with that thing you summoned upstairs?"

Zatanna reaches out to touch a page with her parents, John and a group of other people I don't recognise in a pub. "He-. He said that only thing we could do that would make him order Nabu out of Dad would be killing Klarion."

"It's what they do." John puts his elbows on the table and leans forwards. "You give anyone.. -any_thing_\- that sort of power and they can't resist lording it over people. If Giovanni was willing to put the Helmet on full time, he'd have been fine putting it on _part_ time as well. They just didn't care."

"So. Are we interested?"

"I-." Zatanna looks at us, then drops her gaze back to the album. "If it's the only way... Maybe we could just hand Klarion over?"

John shakes his head. "Catching him and handing him over'd be a lot more difficult, and it's not exactly easy to start with."

"It occurs to _me_... Lords of Order and Lords of Chaos are.. _similar_, right? They work in the same sorts of way?" Tentative nods from John and Ms Sackville. "Then any technique we develop to attack Klarion would probably work on Nabu. I.. _**don't**_have faith in the forces of Order right now. Kilderkin had a point, we do need to do something about Klarion... But.. if this is how Nabu treats people..."

John gives me an incredulous look. "You wanna get them _both_? _Psssssh_, don't think _small_, do you?"

"If our primary concern is freeing Mister Zatara, then an alternative we may wish to consider is working _**with**_ Klarion. He hates Nabu, maybe more than he hates me. Is that something we want to consider?"

Zatanna looks straight at me and shakes her head. "**No**. Not after what he did."

"Okay then. So, investigate both of them?" Nods all round.

John pulls out a cigarette and taps it against the table. "First problem with that: we know sod all about them. I'm _game_, but it isn't exactly gunna be-."

"How good's your necromancy?"

He narrows his right eye. "Wh_y_?"

"I know where his previous host is buried. Nabu said that Mister Nelson tried to persuade him not to do it. I can't think of anyone who'd know more."

Zatanna's shocked. "You can't turn Kent into some kind of zombie!"

John grimaces and shakes his head. "It wouldn't work like that. We do a séance, speak to his ghost for a few minutes." He pauses for a moment, looking at Zatanna. "I can **do** it, if that's something you're okay with."

"I don't-. Is there something else we could try?"

"A-. Green Lantern, the one from the Justice Society, has all his old books. He'd probably let us read them. I don't know how much help they'd be."

Clarice looks at me sadly and slowly shakes her head. "Dear boy, don't try turning into John. We've already got one of him and he's _plenty_. Read the books _first_, **then** try the dark magic."

I nod. Yes, that's probably a better idea.

"Alright, second problem." John looks at me then Zatanna. "What was Kilderkin on about when he said that we've 'incorrectly predicted the actions of our superiors'? What have the Justice League people _said_?"

I shrug and look at Zatanna. She looks down and shakes her head. "Batman just asked the others to get me back to the.. um, our base. I don't know what they're going to do about the whole.. _thing_."

"John, Batman's Giovanni's friend, and the rest of them aren't going to tolerate this any more than I am. Only reason I didn't get Wonder Woman to join us was because I don't know how good Nabu is at reading minds." Her League file lists her as 'highly resistant' but I don't know if that's 'Lord of Order resistant'.

"Yeah, well, I was his friend and look how well _that_ turned out."

"W-. What do you mean?"

John shakes his head. "Oh, it's not... I'm not used to people who just-"

Ms Sackville glares at him. "John, you owe her." He flinches. "She's going to find out eventually."

"Find out what?"

John sags, staring at the middle of the table. "Was in ninety seven. I was..." He breaths in deeply and then out again. "I'd run into this group called the Brujería. Right nasty bunch of..." He shakes his head. "Thought they were just some crazy cult, 'n they _are_, but they've got the power to back it up. They wanted to summon up some sort of primordial.. evil.. _thing_. Never worked out what they thought they'd get out of it. I didn't even find out exactly what they were up to until they were already onto me. They killed the people working with me and _I_ only got out by dumb luck." He leans back in his chair. "And then I did what I _always_ do; went to my friends for help. A bunch of us got together; Steve Dayton -he was a bit less mental in those days-, Richard Occult, John Sargent, Baron Winters... And Giovanni and Sindella Zatara."

"Nineteen ninety seven... That was the year-."

"Yeah." John nods, the misery plain on his face. "I was the one who got your mum killed. S'why... Why Giovanni hates me, an'... And he's right to. I've failed.. my friends.. a _lot_, but I've never done it to one who had a fourteen month old daughter before." He takes a breath and finally meets her eyes. "He hates me and you probably should as well, but... I'm not letting it happen again. I'm not... We're going to get him back, alright? I couldn't live with myself if-."

Zatanna's chair shoots back as she jumps to her feet, turns and marches away from the table. I sit there in shock while John brings his hands up to cover his face. "Fuck."

**6th November  
02:25 GMT**

Fuck. That was how Giovanni died in the comic, and this time it was... "John, Ms Sackville, that was not helpful."

Ms Sackville glares at me. "She would have asked eventually."

"But not tonight!"

"Then _when_? When would be a good time to reveal something like that? If we're working together she'd be asking us about how we knew her father, 'cause she misses him. How long d'you want us to keep schtum for? A week? A month? Now, you're right; we can't let Nabu get away with this. Klarion neither. Working out how to-."

Zatanna's collapsed to the floor next to the door we came through to in the main room. I exit FTL squatting against the opposite wall and try to work out how I can fix this. If she refuses to have anything to do with-

"Did you know?"

"What?"

"Did you know?"

"No! I wouldn't have... There's no _record_. Missus Zatara's cause of death is listed as a stroke on every file I saw! There was-. I didn't-."

"Dad never told me why he was so scared when you started talking about him. He wouldn't tell me-. How can I work with someone like him!"

Take a moment. Think it through. "Zatanna, a few hours ago we were on Roanoke Island fighting Klarion. And if he'd been a bit more intelligent when I charged him, or a bit more on the ball when Billy appeared or.. or a bit luckier, any one of us could have died. Kaldur was in charge of our team. Would it have been his fault? Or after he was injured and I took charge, would it have been mine?" A pained, gasping breath and she bows her head. I squeeze my eyes closed and rub my forehead with my right hand. "They shouldn't have just sprung that on you like that. I'm.. I'm sorry."

"How many of the others died?"

Ring, access records. "The time of death of Mister Sargent suggests he died as well. Mister Dayton has a range of prescriptions, antipsychotics, mood stabilisers.. few other things. Of course, pharmaceuticals won't necessarily work if the cause is magical. Doctor Occult survived and I can't find good records for Baron Winters." Who else? I've got a long list of John's late friends stored. "Benjamin Cox, Franklin North, Emma Young and Anne-Marie Mason. All of them were friends of his. I've got no way to know which of the other deaths that happened at the same time were caused by the same thing, but there's a noticeable spike-"

"Stop. Please, stop." I stop. "Dad knew, didn't he? About all those other people. And Mom..."

"Almost certainly."

"That's why he's so protective of me. I thought it was just him being..."

"Yeah. What we do, is dangerous. No two ways about it. We train, we carry advanced equipment-" I tap the Spell Eater where it hangs on my chest. "-and we try and be sensible about our abilities, but... We can die. And not because we messed up, just because the sorts of people we fight _are_ people who are capable of killing us."

"So why did he join the Justice League? Why did he keep being a superhero?"

"I don't know. I don't know what _his_ reason was. Why are _you_ doing it?"

"I wanted to help people. I want to.. to be like Dad." She sits up a little straighter. "What about you?"

"Have you ever looked over someone's shoulder at a crossword.. or test or something, and just found the answer really obvious? Sometimes, when I look around the world, at what people are doing, the way society works... That's how I feel. There's no reason for magic not to be mainstream. There's no reason for research into mad science type technology to be so slow. There's no reason... I want to make the world work properly. To do that, I need a good reputation and I need contacts."

"You don't want to help people at all?"

"I have an orange power ring. If I want to help someone, I have to care a great deal about what happens to them. For you, for our team mates, that's easy, but I had to abandon injured children in Gotham because their individual well-being didn't matter to me enough to trigger the ring. But, by doing so, I helped stop the spell that bit earlier. As a result, more people live. I **hope**, anyway. See, the fact is, objectively, a life is a life. But it feels different when it happens to you, to people _you_care about. Except.. it's not, not really. Six people die and one man goes mad, and everyone else on Earth gets to live."

"Is he really..? Is he the best chance we've got?"

"If I knew someone better we'd be there instead. And-" I look at him through the wall with the Ophidian's Eyes. "-he's completely motivated to see this through. If you can't stand to be around him then-"

"No. No, I shouldn't-. It's just... I don't remember Mom. All I had were Dad's stories and photos and now Dad's... And he just comes out with it..."

I reach over and pat her on the knee. "Do you want to go home? Or, I don't know, we've got plenty of space at the cave if you want to stay there for a bit."

"No, we need to finish.. sorting out what we're going to do." I stand and offer her my right hand. She takes it and pulls herself up. I have the ring open the double doors back into the main door and we walk through arm in arm.

Albert's finished organising the tea. The pot and six cups are on the table and he's taken the seat between John and Ms Sackville. There's a hip flask next to John's. We slowly walk over. Zatanna looks directly at John. "Paul and I can talk to Green Lantern. What are you going to be doing?"

His head stays tilted down but he manages to raise his eyes to meet hers. "There's.. this guy I know. He's involved in high level chaos magic. Dunno how much help he'll be but I can try and get hold of him."

Ms Sackville nods. "I'll put the word out that we're after information on Klarion. Should be able to get hold of a few books on Order and Chaos. We can see if we can find out-"

A phone rings. After a momentary delay Albert reaches into his jacket pocket and fishes a modern looking mobile out and answers it.

"Wot?"

Ms Sackville frowns at him but presses on. "See if we can find out anything helpful. You'd be amazed what people can just shove in a lock-up somewhere and forget about."

Albert looks like the phone call is displeasing him. After a moment he holds it a little away from his ear. "'Ere, Clarrie. Some berk called Cyril's on the phone. Sounds like a nonce. Want me to tell him to fuck off?"

Ms Sackville sighs. "What does he want?"

"Somefink about Demons in Liverpool. Oh, 'ang on. John, it's yer sister."

"What?" John suddenly comes out of his funk and grabs the phone. "Cheryl?" He winces. "Yeah, I-. I _know_, it wasn't-." He listens to her for a moment. "Yeah, look... Okay. Tell him I'll be there. Yeah, sure." He move the phone away from his head and hangs up.

"Well?"

"Don't ask me how, but Cheryl somehow got hold of Sir Cyril. You know, Knight?" I nod. "Those Praexis Demons you ran into wouldn't have just turned up on their own. He wants me to help him track down where they came from."

"Right, I'll come with you. Don't feel much like sleep. Zatanna?"

Ms Sackville shakes her head. "No. You're taking her straight home."

I frown at her and look at Zatanna, who nods. "Yes. Could you.. take me back to the cave, please?"

"Of course. John, I'll be back in half an hour."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

.

**6th November**  
**05:14 GMT -4**

"Uuh!"

The punching bag lies strewn across the gymnasium floor in tatters.

"Uuh _uuuh_!"

A little further along the floor the heavy bag has suffered the same fate. A cloud of slowly settling dust marks the final resting place of the rubble bag and the heavy metal punching block lies in torn pieces where I've ripped it apart. I'm now working the force field pads in a frenzy of concussive impacts.

"Uuh. **Raah**!"

The energy shield around the upper right one fails under the impact of my fist. This isn't working. I came back from China in a filthy temper. I was alright going there, but being kept hanging around while they decided what to do about me left me plenty of time to think about what happened on Roanoke Island, and the more I thought about it... The angrier it made me. I hoped that I'd be able to work out my aggression with a little mindless violence in our gymnasium. It's been.. four hours. Haven't calmed down noticeably. I've got no idea what the others are up to and frankly I don't really want them to have to deal with me while I'm like this.

I stare at the pads. "Ring, repair and recharge them." Nothing happens. "Rrrrrrhh!"

Footsteps behind me. Boots, heels. I narrow my eyes, still facing the pads.

"Wonder Woman. I wondered who it would be." She takes a breath to start speaking. "Before you start, I'm going to tell you what I occasionally had cause to tell my mother before coming here. I am in an absolutely foul mood and it's taking me quite a lot of effort to remain this polite. I'm really not fit for civilised company at present. Come back later. A few hours...Tomorrow, perhaps."

"I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Then on your head be it.."

"Grayven-."

I turn on her, eyes blazing. "What the fuck was that! What did you people think you were playing at?! Mister Zatara nearly ended up spending the rest of his life as Nabu's **meat puppet**! You all just **stood** there!"

She remains calm, gazing levelly at me. "Are you finished?"

Words fail me. I growl under my breath and shake my head, not trusting myself to look at her.

"Zatara agreed to take on Nabu to save Zatanna. His choice-"

"Nabu was holding Zatanna hostage! No such deal could be considered to be freely made! You, or Stewart, or Batman... Any of you could have taken the Helmet from him!"

"Angering someone as powerful as Nabu has other consequences-."

"So we deal with them! That's what we're _for_, isn't it?!" I turn away and lean against the pads. "It shouldn't have had to be _me_. You're supposed to be his allies, his team mates, his.. _friends_. I don't even _like_ him that much!"

"You believe we should have interrupted."

"_Yes_. Such a sacrifice would have been completely pointless. I... When Robin stood up to me when we were dealing with those godlings... He was right, and I was wrong. I was having too much fun to stop and consider the wisdom of my actions and he needed to blow up my objective to make me see that. My respect for him... And I _thanked_ him for it. My **friend**, stopped me doing something stupid. You, you just..."

We stand in silence for a few moments. Huh, I actually feel a little calmer now. Maybe I should have just found some random person in the street to shout at hours ago.

"What did you do with our prisoners?"

"Shouldn't you be out doing something? The ring estimates that the death toll from that spell was at least seven hundred thousand."

"Grayven, I need to know."

"It'll be public knowledge in three days anyway. Frankly, you can wait. If you've got nothing better to do I'm sure that you could make yourself useful helping track down Klarion."

"Did you kill them?"

I frown. _Oooo_h. **That's** why I'm getting prioritised. I suppose it's not an unreasonable guess. "Hundreds of thousands of children dead. That'll rise, of course. Injuries. Suicides. Only bothers me in the abstract, really. Everyone I know well enough to care about is old enough to look after themselves."

"Grayven, **did** you **murder** them?"

"Of course, that's the same for _you_, isn't it? Amazons don't have children, the only Justice Leaguers with offspring are Batman and Mister Zatara..."

"Peter Garibaldi is the Themysciran embassy's media relations officer. He has two young sons and the first thing I did when the fight was over was make sure they were alright. Now **answer me**."

"He was fortunate. You can find out when the bereaved do. Three days."

I hear her hands slide over the rope of her lasso. "That isn't good enough."

I turn around to face her again, grinding my teeth. "If I were going to kill them I'd have done it then and there where you could all see me do it as a judgement on your ineptitude!" I take a deep breath. "But while this incident has completely destroyed my faith in the Justice League my faith in humanity remains. Justice will be done."

We stare at each other for several seconds. "What. Did you **do**. To them?" I just shake my head. "Grayven, ..."

He lips move, but I hear nothing. "Hah hah haaah! You just tried to give me an order, didn't you?" I tap my right ear with my right index finger. "Half second delay. If the ring thinks you or Batman are about to give me an order, I suddenly go deaf." Actually, Father Box handles it but I've managed to keep his existence a secret so far. The technique was obvious, really. It was just that before today I hadn't thought that I'd need it.

This clearly doesn't please her. "You swore that you would obey my commands. We trust you with _Alan's_ lantern because you made that oath."

"I swore obedience to a woman I trusted and I don't trust you with that authority anymore. And if you were relying on _that_then you severely misjudged the situation. If you relied on that, if you used that oath to compel my obedience to every request you made, what do you think would be the very _first thing_ I would do when the year was up? If you'd failed to make me _want_ to follow your lead? When I was finally free I'd-. I gave you a year, not so you could restrain me, but so that you would..." I raise my right hand to my face. Oh. I hadn't realised that myself until just now. "So that you would have time to convince me that your way of doing things was right. Zard, Wotan, Faust and Thorn were all murderers before yesterday. All known to you and to the police. If it were just me, if I didn't care... If I'd gone to Louisiana to fight the Injustice League on my own... I'd have killed them all then and there. Wouldn't even have broken the law doing it. I held myself back because I.. I _wanted_ to believe that the League's way of doing things was right. That mercy and restraint are really the best way to deal with these things." I shake my head, lower my hand and look straight at her again. "But they're not, are they? It doesn't work. Because four murderous wizards didn't die years ago hundreds of thousands of children died last night. And I may not care about them as individuals.. but I _do_ care about the species as a whole. It-. It's appalling. It doesn't work. Doesn't work." I turn back to the pads and make fists, but my heart's not really in it. "Leave me in peace. In a few hours I'll go out and help with the damage limitation."

"The fact that something like this happened doesn't invalidate the things we fight for. If we can't hold ourselves to a higher standard than _supervillains_ then what are we _for_?"

"Tell it to the dead." I punch the mid left target, then lean against it. "I wanted to be wrong so badly, you know? I didn't really want the responsibility of deciding everything for myself, not until I understood.. _more_. Now, don't have that luxury."

I hear her take another step towards me. Oh, what does she want _now_?

I feel her hand on my left shoulder.

How dare she?

"I'm stronger, faster and better armed than you get your hand **off me**!"

RRRRRRRRRRRR.

Resume.

**6th November  
06:57 GMT**

I nod at the young woman in the yellow, green and black tabard. "Morning, Squire."

She looks up from her computer with her eyebrows raised, rolls her eyes at me, then looks back down. Beryl Hutchinson's sitting on the bonnet of a police car. She's fifteen in this continuity, actually a little older than Robin. Sir Cyril's over near the police cars talking to the Chief Inspector in charge of the operation. The whole area around this part of the dock was cordoned off by the Merseyside Police once John and Trevor Marrack narrowed the site of the summoning down this far. Another set of scrying wards is blocking us from working out precisely where it is, though since Demon summoning actually requires magic knowledge that might not be connected to everyone _else_ suddenly finding out about it. Fortunately, Fatty and his friends left a trail that wasn't protected.

I sent Teekl back with Zatanna and instructions to look after her. Spending all the time she has with Wolf appears to be bringing out her mothering instincts. At the side of the road there's an armed response unit nearby checking their weapons. UK police are trained in dealing with hostile metahumans but they aren't equipped with anti-Demon weapons and sounded decidedly unhappy about having to check the area building by building with no real idea about what they'd find. They brightened up once I made it clear to them that _I'm_ taking point now.

"Saw the interview you did in Taiwan." Miss Hutchinson's checking through three dimensional architectural plans of the buildings we're about to enter.

"Don't suppose there's any chance you _didn't_ see the cake thing?"

A small smile. "Not bloody likely."

I tighten the left corner of my mouth slightly. "Anything on the plans that doesn't match my scans?"

She shakes her head. "So I did a ring-round last night." One warehouse disappears and is replaced with an office building. "Only British superhero under eighteen I couldn't get hold of was Cornwall Boy. In fact-" Another image. Storm drains, I think? "-Captain Cornwall didn't sound like he knew where he was. Worrying, that."

"We don't get.. very good signal."

"Who's 'we' when we're at home?"

"Young people undergoing instruction by members of the Justice League."

She tilts her head and looks at me out of the corner of her eye. "Sidekicks."

"I believe the term my colleagues would prefer is 'partners'."

"So, that'd be Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, Red Arrow, Troia, Artemis, Zatanna and _you_, would it?"

"Nnnnnnnnn... Most of them. I'm not really supposed to say what the full roster is."

"Should I be offended?"

"I only stopped to pick up R-. Cornwall Boy, because we were desperate for magic users. Your skills... Your _unusual_ skills lie in data analysis and we didn't really have any data to analyse."

She turns off the computer and gives me her full attention. "So what exactly _happened_ last night?"

"In summary, five extremely powerful and extremely unpleasant magic users somehow managed to divide the Earth in two and put nearly everyone over eighteen on one and nearly everyone under eighteen on the other. The League and.. hehr.. the sidekicks attacked the site of the ritual and stopped it, but not before a lot of people died."

She thinks about it. "Car crashes.. an' planes an' that?"

"Mostly. Europe got off lightly because of the time zone. In other places it was..." I see the bridge again, and rub my forehead with my right hand. Probably better I'm here rather than sleeping.

"God." She looks to her left as she tries to get her head around the death toll. "I just.. I heard some crashes. Got the kids out and went up to the castle. Didn't realise..." She shakes her head. "Who was it that did it?"

"Klarion, Blackbriar Thorn, William Zard, Felix Faust and some guy in a robe I didn't recognise. Klarion and robe guy got away, Batman's got what's left of Blackbriar Thorn and Zard and Faust are being detained at Nabu's pleasure."

"Who?"

"Nabu. Er, Fate, Doctor Fate."

"Having trouble with the 'real names' thing?"

"Nabu's naturally non-corporeal. I doubt he has a secret double life."

"What's this robe guy look like?" I pop a screen out of subspace and display what I saw of him. She nods. "Dark Druid. Don't know much about him." She looks thoughtful. "Not sure anyone does. Show me that attack again." I replay him blasting Guy and Stewart. She shakes her head. "No, nothing like that. Last time I saw him, he was legging it after Cyril and me caught him trying to burn down a church."

"Why was he doing that?"

"A lot of churches in this country are built on the holy sites of older pagan religions. He was targeting them. He'd ritually sacrifice a bunch of animals and then burn them down."

"Were the sacrificial rituals actually.. magic? Or was it just to freak people out?"

She shrugs. "Never saw anything happen as a result. Might be worth getting Captain Cornwall or.. John Constantine?" I nod. "To check them out."

"Do you know where his name came from? I didn't think druids really went in for-"

"Oh. Um. That was me."

"Dark... Druid..?"

She blushes a little. "I was twelve, alright?"

"I've heard worse. Think he got an upgrade from somewhere. If you could send me the reports-"

"Alright you two, over here!" Sir Cyril waves us over. John and Mister Marrack are already with him. Miss Hutchinson drops off the car to walk over to them. I send the screen back into subspace. I need to make sure they let me go in first. I don't think Sir Cyril's ever worked with a Lantern before. Hm. A flicker and I appear next to John at FTL speed. Sir Cyril's head turns slightly but his helmet obscures any surprise he might be showing. I was slightly impressed to learn that his armour and weapons are enchanted. Might be more impressed if I had any idea how good it is. I mean, I've seen videos of it stopping rifle bullets, but I don't know the mechanism it uses. Miss Hutchinson's gear is a bit more mundane but still of high quality. _She_ apparently had the sense to wear armour over her torso, though the leggings are unarmoured. "Right then. Someone's been summoning Demons. We can't be having that, so we're going to go in there and put a stop to it. We don't know how many Demons, cultists or what have you there are, and we don't know if there's any hostages."

John removes a half smoked cigarette from his mouth. "Shouldn't be anything too big." He exhales a stream of smoke and takes a look at the target area. "It'd be too noticeable, even round here. 'Course, if a Demon's actually _runnin'_ the show..."

"Well, anyway, armed response is here to back us up. We're going in once the police've got all the exits covered. I'm going in first, Captain, Orange Lantern, Squire, you're after me. Constantine, I'll call you in if we find something magical we need you to take a look at."

"Sir Cyril, I'm quite a lot more resilient than you. It really would make more sense for me to take point."

He shakes his head. "If there's anyone there, they're going to be using magic. My armour's warded against stuff like that."

Ring, remove torso armour. "So's my skin, sir. In addition-" Ring, restore armour and add construct-armour. "I can tank quite a bit more normal damage, as well as being able to relay information from my direct scans back to Squire. If it comes to it I can also run away a bit faster. Sir, I really think-."

"Alright, alright. Made your point." He stands aside and extends his right arm in the direction of the closest building. "After you."

**6th November  
07:34 GMT**

First building was an empty office block. Bare walls, mould and a couple of sleeping homeless people who were escorted outside. Once I got well inside I ran filament constructs throughout the corridors. Finding nothing, the others entered and John and Captain Cornwall tried detecting anything untoward. Nothing obvious, so we proceeded through the building at walking pace, stopping every ten metres or so to repeat the process. I wanted to go a little faster but Sir Cyril was pretty definite, and he's both in charge and has more experience than me. His justification was that there's no way for our target or targets to get out by conventional means so the most important thing is to be **sure** that we're not missing anything. Slow and steady might not always win the race, but at least it doesn't end up splattered all over the walls.

Anyway, roof to boiler room, nothing. No cultists, no kidnap victims and no Demonic unpleasantness. John found that suspicious as cults and Demons are usually both pretty territorial. Next was a series of large gutted terraced housing and it was the same story there. No indication of demonic presence. John's confident that they couldn't hide themselves completely even if they could obscure their precise location, so we moved on and the police tighten the cordon behind us.

The five of us are now standing outside of a distribution warehouse. Not all that long ago shipping containers were unpacked and their contents loaded onto lorries to be transported across the country. Not really sure what happened. Import of manufactured goods is still big business in Britain. I know Liverpool's been through some hard times economically and our manufacturing output has decreased but shouldn't somewhere like this still be in operation?

I look at Sir Cyril. "Point of entry?"

Squire brings up an image of the interior. Of course, most of the equipment's probably gone. Looks like it's a choice between the old staff entrance and two fire doors. Any of us could open the main goods entrance and I could easily break through one of the walls but we're aiming to contain and that means no new places for potential targets to escape out of.

"Not much to chose between them. Constantine?"

John walks over to the outer wall and lays his hands against it for a moment before shaking his head. "Nothing."

"Might as well pick the closest, then."

I nod and use a construct appendage to gently remove the lock before cracking open the door and sending a filament into the building. More filaments radiate off it, sending data to Squire's computer. Just confirms what we thought was there; corridors, what was once a locker room, stairs up to the offices and an entrance way to the warehouse section. I look at Sir Cyril and he nods.

Ring, accelerated perception.

Compliance.

I appear in the locker room and scan my surroundings with my eye, switching between normal and Ophidian vision. Nothing out of the ordinary. Not sure why they left the lockers here. Maybe they were too much of a pain to get out? Or maybe whatever estate agent picked this place up was hoping to sell it on in working condition?

Normal perception.

I still feel a little unwell using it, but better a little unwell than getting mobbed by Demons as soon as I appear. I send filaments into each of the lockers. Nothing. Ceiling space? No. "Locker room clear, proceeding to corridor." There was a card reader system but the lock appears to have been forced. Cultists or more homeless people? Nothing in the corridor but dirt. No obvious tracks... "Corridor clear. Come on in."

I turn away from the door as Sir Cyril comes through, turning sideways so that his armour can fit. I put their position on my HUD and walk to the foot of the stairs. From the top or do the ground floor first? Hm. I hold out my left hand, palm flat to the floor. I'd rather have Teekl do this, but... I tap the back of my left hand with my right and Fatty falls out of the ring. It lays on its belly on the ground for a moment, its fat head swinging left and right. A moment later it stops and stares at me, its face hopeful.

"Food?"

"Why are you laying on the floor when you can fly?" It looks to the side for a moment, then floats into the air as if someone is lifting it from the shoulders. It slouches into the air, looking at the ground in apparent confusion. "Go up the stairs and let me know if you see anyone."

"Food upstairs?"

"Stranger things have happened. **Go**." Fatty accelerates up the stairwell. At worst he'll be able to give me a few seconds warning. Need to find out whether he can actually fight or not.

"Erm, what was that?"

I turn to Sir Cyril. "I assimilated that Praexis Demon last night. Now it works for me. Sorry, my other Construct-Lantern's far cleverer but I left her at home."

"Rrrright. And it knows what it's doing, does it?"

"I.. honestly have no idea." Sir Cyril doesn't seem to have another question so I walk towards double doors leading to the loading bay.

Glancing back I see John taking a look around while Captain Cornwall watches him. "Feeling something. Dunno. Not very strong. Might just be an imprint from all the people who used to work here."

I push open the doors ahead of me with a construct and send out feelers. Nothing organic feeling, though there are a number of slightly rusted shipping containers. I transition myself to the air in the middle of the room. Nothing even slightly demony, and Fatty's just looking at empty offices. There aren't any windows in here and the lights are off so it's a bit dingy."Clear. Generating light emitting constructs."

Sir Cyril leads the way again. He takes a look at the room and draws his sword. It looks like a simple arming sword, but down the flat of the blade on both sides runes are picked out in silver wire. They're glowing, but I don't know if that's in response to a threat or just what they _do_. He heads into the room and towards the right.

As the light spreads across the room I take a look around. Abandoned and partially deconstructed shelving in the rear area, a few cardboard boxes and five metal shipping containers. Bit sloppy, but I suppose when your company goes under the motivation to do a thorough job just sort of leaves you.

Captain Cornwall comes through the door next, air bending aura thing in place. Need to find out what that's actually called. He walks left towards the bay doors. John and Beryl bring up the rear. John looks around and smirks. "Alright, what's wrong with this picture?"

Beryl thinks for a moment. "Should be more dust?"

"Nah." He walks towards the nearest shipping container and peers at it. "This place has been out of use how long?"

"Eight years."

He nods. "Makes sense. And no one's going to bother clearing a place like this out completely. But shipping containers are expensive, they're designed to fit on the back of lorries easily and the door's right there. Why.. are they.." He reaches out towards it with his right hand. "..still here?" He holds his hand just over its surface.

Fatty falls out of my ring onto the top of the central shipping container. It lands with a thump, and.. there's another quiet noise from inside. It pushes itself back to its feet. "Funny painting."

John's eyes narrow as he looks from Fatty to the shipping container. Then he presses his hand against its surface. "What're you hid- OH SHIT!" He yanks his hand back. "They're in the shipping containers! They're in the shipping containers!"

I flick on OphidiansEye's and AGH! Fuck! For a fraction of a second I see a nightmarish network of black lines and what looked like the outlines of people before _something_... Something. Wholeness Rightly Assumed. Ah. Better.

And then the giant baby tackles me out of the air.

**6th November  
07:40 GMT**

The head is too big. It brings frighteningly sharp teeth down onto my shoulder construct-armour and all I can think about is how big it is. Its arms are scrabbling at the construct-armour around my head but there's no way... _Urgh_! It doesn't have joints! Its arms are disjointed and held together with long tubes of skin. Its legs are wrapped around mine and despite what I know about biology it's grip is incredibly strong. What the hell is-. No. Don't think about that. Orange cracks form in front of my eyes. Ring, transfer.

Unable to comply. Dimensional anchor in close proximity.

We slam into a girder.

**"Empty."**

I focus and direct a infrasound beam at the monster baby's face. No apparent effect.

**"So empty."**

I form a band of orange power around the bits of its body I can see and try to pull it away from me. The limbs bend and distort, resisting my efforts. The head is more solid however, and gradually pulls away. Which forces me to look at its face. Empty milky white eyes, chubby cheeks, gaping, distended mouth containing the claw-like fangs, thin wisps of hair across the dome of its head, snub of a nose.

**"So quiet."**

It chomps at me once, realises that it can't reach me and closes its jaw. Its actual mouth continues with the baby proportions and _it's body is baby-sized_ and this is _**fucked up**_.

Ring, brand.

Unable to comply.

Orange smoke flows from the constructs into its eyes. What the hell is this thing?

Warning! Energy drain detected. Seventy nine percent remaining.

The fat little baby-fingers scrabbling at my head glow ghostly-white and poke holes in the construct-armour. They're an inch away from my eyes and I instinctively lean back.

Proximity alert! Black light detected.

Shit! Shit! Assimilate!

A film of orange light briefly covers it before being sucked away.

Unable to maintain connection.

It opens its mouth again, teeth glowing white.

Oh fuck the hell no.

The bands of light harden into chains and my need to get this monstrosity off me wrenches it backwards. I alter my construct-armour, curving its plates and reducing the friction its getting. I strain to pull my legs up to my chest in an attempt to break its hold on that part of my body. It jerks, trying to get a better hold even as my hold on its neck forces pulls its head away and stretches its neck out away from its bloated baby torso body.

"What is this thing?!"

"A gift."

With a disturbing fleshy _slap_ it finally comes free, long and loose limbs snapping back like rubber bands. Who the fuck said this was a gift? The orange lights had dimmed as I focused on this thing so I turn them back to full power. Captain Cornwall and Knight are slowly backing away from a shambling mob of forty six people. They look.. sick, starved and they stumble uncertainly in my allies' direction. At the back Beryl stares at them in disgust while John only has eyes for the robed figure behind them.

Dark Druid.

"You recognise it, don't you Mister Constantine? Progress is such a wonderful thing. Why, only a decade ago creating an Invunche would have taken us years of work yet I was able to put her together in only a few months."

He takes a step forwards. Fatty leaps at him from the top of a shipping container, mouth open to bite. Dark Druid negligently raises his right hand and blasts him in the stomach, disintegrating him. Ring, if you've got spare power, scan him. No, all it's showing me is a figure made of ghostly, sick looking white light. If that's his construct-colour he must be blocking me in the same way Guy does.

"Would you like to know her name? Do you think her parents are still looking for her? I wasss thinking of arranging a visit, but Klarion's offer was simply too good to turn down."

"So. You're Brujería, then? Didn't think they took Europeans."

"Oh, I won't say that convincing them was easy." He pulls back his hood. The left side of his face is almost normal, aside from the complete lack of hair. The right... The skin is heavily scarred, the ear torn ragged and his right eye glows with the same white light as this Invunche thing's fingers. On his forehead is a 'U' shape. No, not a U. Each of the ends curves outwards and splits in two and there's a small dot which could be an eye. Looks a bit like a double ended snake.

I jerk to the side as the Invunche fires its hand at me, its arm stretching like elastic. The fingers penetrate the construct-armour and grasp at my face. A cluster of hook constructs cut into its flesh and drag it away.

"Constantine, do you know what these things are?" Sir Cyril's holding his sword out with obvious reluctance towards the people encroaching on their position.

"Not exactly."

"John, can this thing be healed?"

He looks up. "No. Sorry mate, but it can't. Once they do that to them-."

"Her name is Katherine Maher. She screamed so hard when I broke-."

Shield, Gamma Cannon.

An orange bubble extends around us just before the radiation beam strikes the monstrosity. The skin burns away but the muscles beneath glow weakly with white light and resist my attack. The whole skin fries off first, arms and legs dropping off as the connective tissue is burned through. Fingers still glowing! I quickly focus the Cannon on them and watch as the hands burst into flame, the glow disappearing and the remains of the limbs falling to lay on the bottom of the shield bubble. Then I focus on the head.

"Surprising ruthlessness from a superhero. You're right though, she couldn't be saved. The rest of them _can_. Good luck working out how."

Sir Cyril sheathes his sword and punches the closest in the head as I finally burn the flesh off Kath-. Off **its** face, and start on the bone. That **isn't** resistant and its head starts to crumple. Gods, this is horrible. I'm just relieved that I can't smell it.

"I think I'll try Manchester next. Or possibly Edinburgh? Or overseas again? There's so many possibilities."

The man Sir Cyril hit staggers and starts to fall before a ghostly white glow envelopes his head and he rights himself.

**"So empty. So quiet. Share with me."**

He then strides forwards and lashes out, the glow of his fist narrowly missing Sir Cyril's breastplate as he backpedals away from it. As soon as he gets more than three metres away the shambler stops glowing and returns to its former listless state.

"Railgun."

It hums as it flings tungsten slugs at Dark Druid, passing straight through his body and into the floor. If he's a Black Lantern.. is he _phasing_?

"I'll leave you to it, shall I?" He raises his hood and shimmers slightly as he disappears again, just like he did on Roanoke.

Damn.


	45. Page 17

**6th November  
07:44 GMT**

Sir Cyril uses his scabbard to knocks down another. "Trevor, any ideas?"

**"Hear the sound of eternal silence."**

Captain Cornwall gestures and the floor buckles upwards. The shamblers who are free of the press stumble and a small wall of earth now blocks their path.

"Captain, Robert can drain magic directly from something like you do from your altar. I think you can as well. If Dark Druid did this with magic you should be able to remove it."

"How'd you-! Never mind, I'll give it a go." He reaches his hands out. "Ugh, death magic. Never felt-" The first shambler collapses. "-anything like it." He points his hands at another.

Wait. Ring, status of that man?

Subject is deceased.

"Stop! That killed him!" He drops his hands immediately. "Ring, are the rest alive?"

"Readings unclear. Vital signs present, but presence of black light suggests otherwise."

Sir Cyril shakes his head. "We can't just assume that he's telling the truth about being able to save them."

The Invunche is completely vapourised so I start neutralising the radiation. Not going to have a repeat of Gotham. Every atom gone, no sign of any sort of magic re-emergence. Check again, just in case-.

John scurries away from the shambling lines. Where was he trying to get? "Oi, Lantern, can you get us up on the shipping containers!"

It isn't coming back. It _isn't_-. "Better idea." I form an orange platform under each of them and lift them into the air. "Sorry for the delay, was a bit occupied."

Sir Cyril nods at me. "Thanks. I wasn't-."

"No, seriously mate, I need to have a look at the spells he's using. Get me over-." I swing his platform over to the one furthest away. "Right." He rolls up his sleeves, stretches his neck, stares at it and then places his hands on the metal surface. He grimaces, but remains in place.

Beryl kneels on her platform and looks down. "So, are we safe now?"

I look down. They've more or less come to a halt without a target but they're not going for the doors. If the glowing is as strong as the Invunche's then I'm not sure I could stop them with a construct barrier if they charged the exits. Sir Cyril strokes his chin with his right hand. "I doubt it. Constantine, would having Captain Cornwall drain the shipping containers work?"

"Frigging hell, this is complicated." He shakes his head. "I don't know, is the answer. Unless you can find a necromancer on short notice we're pretty much guessing here. I think.. I think it's replaced their vitality with something.. something.. _unliving_. Life and.. anti life."

Anti life as in Anti-Life Equation? I really hope that was just colourful language to describe a form of necromancy. "John, the rune array. Is there an isosceles triangle with seven straight lines coming off the long side? Might be inside a circle."

"... Yep, got it. What is it?"

"Symbol of the Black Lantern Corps." Nekron was in the comics before the Blackest Night, but I don't remember anything about him. "Super zombies, only... These _aren't_, and Dark Druid isn't acting like-"

Creamy energy slams into my armour and starts melting through it. Automatically I evade and return fire, knocking one of the shamblers down. He was standing at the centre of a huddle with four others and they are bowled over as well. None of them rise.

Ring, what the hell just happened?

Several poured their black energy into a central figure who projected it as a beam.

Frantically, I look for others organising themselves in the same way. "They're burning themselves out to shoot us." Three reach out and put their hands on one who is staring up at me. I form construct-manacles and pull them apart. Immediately they glow and go into a frenzy, attacking and destroying their bindings.

Ring, message Green two eight one four B. Message: I need everything the Green Lantern Corps has on Nekron, don't mess me about.

Compliance.

"Looks like most of the power's flowing through that Lantern rune. I've... I've got no idea what to do about it."

Another group clusters up. I send a construct to grab them but this time they turn and breathe the orange light in.

Warning! Energy drain detected. Forty four percent remaining.

I dismiss the construct and use a construct beanbag gun instead. They go down and slowly scrabble back up onto their feet.

Sir Cyril looks at John. "So the choice is, do nothing, drain the victims so they die properly or drain the rune and hope for the best?"

"I might be able to subvert it with orange light, but..." I hold my hands out to the sides, palms up. "I really don't know if that's better or worse."

Beryl looks at me. "Is there, like, a Life Lantern rune or something?"

I respond with a jerky nod. "Yes, the White Lantern symbol. The lines spray out more from the triangle."

Sir Cyril nods. "That sounds like a better option. Constantine, can you change it?"

He shakes his head. "No. Too much power in the system. Even if it doesn't just kill me it'll just change back anything I do to it."

"Right. Trevor, drain as much power out of the system as you can without collapsing it. Constantine, if you can change it, do it. If you can't, tell me right away and we'll have to... Well. Orange Lantern, keep the.. the infected people apart."

I nod. Since the beaned shamblers don't seem to have been harmed I take the initiative and shoot all of them to the ground.

"I'm draining it now."

"Okay... Okay... **Stop**! Right. I'll try an'.. redirect..."

Several of the shamblers start convulsing.

Ring, monitor what's happening with them.

Black light being superseded by white light.

That's a relie- The others are looking at them. Right. I grab them, deposit them on the far side of the room and fire off a new volley of beanbags. "John, is it holding?"

He nods. "Think **so**. Cornwall, ease off on the draining."

"Right."

The people who had been convulsing start showing signs of life. Those who are moving moan, cry, clutch themselves or whoever's next to them. I can't imagine what that was like but at least they'll recover eventually. I think.

"Ring, status?"

"Physical health restored. Black light infection eliminated."

John nods, relieved. "Shift us over to the next container. I could use some good news before Orange and me have to go and talk to my sister."

**6th November  
14:07 GMT -5**

There are nice parts of Gotham. There are parts of Gotham that are poor and a little past their best but still decent enough, like where Artemis and Paula live. Then, there are places like this. The ring excludes the stench from the puddles of urine as I make my way through the poorly lit and graffiti encrusted corridors. Are those..? Yep, those are needles. I should probably do something about that but at the moment I just can't work up the enthusiasm. Maybe.. maybe in a couple of days or something. Once the mess outside is cleared up sufficiently and I don't have to worry about running out of charge.

I recognised that wearing my armour would be a bit of a social faux pas around here so I've gone with some slightly more 'street' gear that Artemis picked out back when I first met Zatanna. Oh, I feel dumber for even thinking of it like that. Zatanna was asleep on my bed with Teekl curled up around her when I popped back to recharge after dealing with Dark Druid. None of our spare rooms are really furnished and I guess Teekl decided to take her there. I need to talk to Alan about those books, though I think it would be best if we left going through them until next weekend. Zatanna still has school next week and while the ring can filter the information far faster than we could read them together I want her to feel involved with this. **I** hate feeling powerless at the best of times and this is far from that.

Miss Robinson's apartment is on the seventh floor of this block of flats. I thought it would be rude to scan the interior in any detail but I know she's in there. A quick check that I don't look _too_ street -no fear of _that_-, make an effort to smile then knock three times on the door with my right hand.

The noise of movement from inside stops for a moment and I can just make out a muffled conversation. And.. is that running water? Then footsteps approaching and a quick walk, a chain going on the door and a stiff latch being turned.

"-what you really got up to last night but there's no way it's..." The woman on the other side blinks at me through the gap between door and frame. Her hair is cut short and dyed a garish shade of purple. She's wearing narrow glasses, a pink t-shirt and blue jeans. I.. have no idea who she is.

"Good afternoon. I'm Orange Lantern two-."

Her eyes widen and she slams the door shut with some force. I hear a couple of heavy footsteps and then it goes quiet. Hm. I rap my right knuckles against the door again and lean up to it. "I say? Are you alright in there?"

There's a noise which could be an 'uh huh', then what sounds like scrabbling and a frantic sounding speech noise from further in. Um. Ring, I am at the right house, right?

Confirmed. Holly Robinson is within.

A picture starts to form next to the ring but I wave it away when I realise that she's in the shower. Okay, so, friend of hers? Or- Wait. I remember that thing in the comics when Selina Kyle had a daughter. Holly was babysitting with.. her _girlfriend_. Huh. Right. Don't remember what said girlfriend looked like. I don't suppose it _really_ matters, but I don't have time to stand out here all day. Knock again? I don't want to panic the poor woman. No, it's alright, I hear footsteps coming back and the chain being pulled off. Ms Purple Hair opens the door wide enough for her to stand in it. She looks a little embarrassed.

"Um. Sorry about that. I just thought Holly was making you up or something."

"Quite alright. Shall we start again?"

"Yeah. That'd probably be a good idea."

"Right. Hello, I'm Orange Lantern two eight one four. And you are..?"

"I'm Karon."

"Karon Robinson, or is it a bit early for that?" She blinks and gapes for a moment. Then she blushes. Guess I was right about that. "Or is it like Cher and it's _just_ Karon?"

"Case! Karon Case."

"Alliterative, I approve. Can I come in?"

"Holly's just.. in the shower."

"I hate to be a nag, but there was a fairly major disaster last night and I'm a _bit_ busy today."

"Sure. Um." She takes a step back, still holding onto the door, then she turns away into the room and pushes it a little wider as she releases it. "It's not much, but-"

"Are there any dead children in it?"

She turns back, alarmed. "Wh-? No!"

"Then it's far better than the rest of my day's likely to be." In fact, it isn't _that_ bad inside. Carpet's a bit worn, settee cushions sag with use and the television on the small table opposite is one of the cathode ray type. Against the wall to my right is a couple of kitchen units, a sink and a microwave. A full bin bag is leaning up against one of the units and behind the sink I see a window with a view of more Gotham brutalism. "Has Miss Robinson completed the report I asked her for?"

"Ahhh..." Miss Case sits down on the settee and reaches down beside it. "Here it is." She retrieves the report and hands it out to me. "It's a bit, um..."

I take it from her, then generate a chair construct opposite the settee and sit down. "I'll type it up for her."

The door to the bedroom swings open and Miss Robinson marches through, still towelling her hair. She's wearing loose trousers and a short sleeved pyjama top and from the way they're sticking to her skin I don't think she took the time to fully dry herself. _Averting eyes_. "Hiiii. I wasn't sure you'd actually be back."

"Of course I would. Do you want to.. take a seat?"

"Right! Hehehe." She walks around the front of the settee and plonks herself down next to her girlfriend.

"So, I went back and paid the restaurant bill, that's taken care of. I have your re_port_-" I wiggle it. "-and I don't see any criminal activity in your flat, so..." A slim white briefcase appears in the air next to me and I float it over to her. She looks at Miss Case and then hesitantly reaches for it, her right hand shaking. Once she gets a grip on the handle I release it from the orange aura. She puts in on her knees and with a slightly gleeful expression pops it open.

"Eeeeeeeee!" The cash doesn't fill it, unfortunately, so the visual isn't as good as I might have liked. She turns and pulls her girlfriend into a hug. "We got three hundred thousand dollars! We got three hundred-!"

"Actually.. you.. don't."

She swiftly turns back to me. "What gives?"

"You got fifty thousand dollars _now_, the balance being paid over the course of the next year. I did say I'd be checking up on your progress. I'll visit you weekly and as long as you continue to avoid backsliding I'll hand another instalment over each time. Sound reasonable?"

"I.. guess..."

"Might I suggest that one of your first actions be to open a bank account? Assuming you don't have one already. No disrespect intended to your neighbours but I don't get the impression that this is the sort of neighbourhood where it's wise to keep that much cash in the house."

She looks at me like I've said something rather foolish. "No shit."

"Hey, were you.. serious, about the dead children?"

I close my eyes and take a moment to compose myself before responding. "Yes. Well, it's.. it's easier for me than for the emergency services, and they're mostly focused on dealing with the injured. Plus, I can match parents to children more quickly than.. posting facial reconstructions somewhere. Cleared Gotham's bridges first thing, now I'm mostly focusing on crashed aircraft. See, because of how the split worked, the airplanes didn't always stay with the bodies so it's.. there aren't many of us who can track them down." I look down at the floor for a moment. "So I'm.. um.. I'm going to get back to work now. Keep your nose clean, and I'll see you again next week."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

.

**9th November**  
**20:13 GMT -4**

The Sphere keeps pace with me as I stride towards the training area. Show time's in two minutes but there's really no point in turning up early. She warbles at me for a few seconds and I understand her as clearly as if she were using actual words. Letting Father Box remodel my spiritual architecture -or rather, give me some- has turned out to have all sorts of fringe benefits

"No. I understand your concerns, but I am determined. It was a rational decision and I stand by it."

Another warble.

"I don't care if he finds out. His _own father_ agreed with me. Kryptonian law-" I cut myself off as we emerge from the passageway and I see that Kon, Mister Tawny, M'gann, Artemis and Kaldur are already here. And so is Wonder Woman. Ah. I feel.. not _guilty_ exactly, but perhaps.. embarrassed? By my prior outburst. Honestly, if she hadn't made what was _supposed_to be a reassuring gesture I might be wearing black eyeliner by now. As it _was_, we've mostly kept apart since then. We bumped into each other yesterday in New York while we helped clear wrecked cars but we were very.. stilted. Got the job at hand done and then went our separate ways.

And.. I need to apologise. Something about seeing countless parents screaming with grief when they were notified that it was _their_ offspring that I just extracted from the wreck rather puts our disagreement into perspective. It isn't about me. It's just.. with Richard, it was clearly my fault for alienating him. I recognised and accepted that. Mister Zatara deserved better. They should've.. I mean, they're the _Justice League_! They're supposed to be.. be _better_ than that. But.. I need to be as well. I'm not bigger than the cause. If I'm going to have a row it should be about something important.

I'm distracted from my thoughts as space bends to my left and Zatanna appears, grinning like a loon. "It worked!" She blinks, takes in the room and then dashes over to me. "Dad's been showing me this new way of teleporting Fate taught him. I went from home to here in seconds. I don't even feel tired!"

"Miss Zatara, I'm pleased that Lantern Nabu is making himself useful."

"Oh, you can totally call me Zatanna."

She takes my arm as we walk over to the group. I think I may have a fan. She isn't really... I didn't exactly save her father for _her_, she hasn't been around enough for me to bond with her in that sort of way. But, perhaps I should? Particularly given that carrot I intend to offer my team mates. Something to consider. But first: "Wonder Woman." She looks at me, her face expressionless. "I wish to apologise for the way I.. for blowing up at you on Saturday. I realise that your concerns were justified, I just.. wasn't clear headed enough to really engage with it." Her eyes flick down for a moment, then she nods. Reconciliation might still be possible.

And now I'm going to ruin it. But there's a difference between ruining something by being a belligerent fool and ruining it over a matter of principle.

"Kon. Present for you." I extract the small dull-grey triamid from subspace and toss it over to him. He catches it, looks at it for a moment and then looks back at me.

"Uhh. Thanks? What is it?"

"A complete repository of Kryptonian history, sociology and language. It's a copy of the one Jor-El made for Kal-El. Just run a finger down one of the edges to activate it. Index is a simple AI, it'll respond to your voice and no one else's."

He looks stunned. "Did... Did Superman give you this?"

"No." Sadly Father Box didn't have much on Kryptonians. I suppose Darkseid hasn't started his vendetta with Superman yet. "I extracted the data from the computers in Kal-El's Fortress. And before you ask-" I make eye contact with Wonder Woman. "-no, I didn't have his permission."

"Um." He looks guiltily at Wonder Woman, who does not look happy with me. I have a counter argument prepared, but I was really expecting to have to use it on Kal-El himself.

"That data was private. You have no right to go through Superman's property."

"You know... I _could_ make an argument about that data being non-specific, and how it should rightfully belong to all Kryptonians. But I don't need to. Did you know that Kal-El has a digitised neural clone of Jor-El in the Fortress? I spoke with it when I took the data. _**Apparently**_, clone rights politics were a **big deal** in his youth. He was really-" I make a fist with my right hand and perform a small air-punch. "-**right on** about the whole thing. Said that Kal-El was failing to live up to his duties as head of House El, and that _as_ a blood relation Kon _should_ have been provided with it already." Wonder Woman's face tightens. "And who am _I_ to argue about Kryptonian law and customs with Jor-El?"

Kon puppy-eyes her. She holds his gaze for a moment before looking down in defeat, slowly nodding. She's been great for Kon, she really has, but even she hasn't been able to pull super-head out of super-arse and frankly I've passed the point where I'm prepared to put up with nonsense from the League, _**especially**_ when it hurts my friends.

"Recognised, Robin, B zero one, Kid Flash, B zero three."

I wave at them as they materialise. "Gang's all here, then."

Kaldur looks at me curiously. "Now that we are assembled, why did you ask us here?"

I smile at him. "Computer, Chinese State News, if you please?" A large holographic screen appears showing a news desk and two presenters.

"-just released from the Special Tribunal-"

Confused looks from my team mates, save for Artemis. Ah, of course. "Allow me to provide a translation." Orange headphones for all.

"-criminals responsible for the horrifying attack last week." Wonder Woman looks at me with a frown. I reply with a small smile. "We go now to the sentencing hearing."

The scene shifts from the newsroom to what looks like a cross between a judge's bench and some sort of roman emperor's box at the amphitheatre. The senior judge of the three is a grey haired woman in thick rimmed spectacles. The four wizards -Wotan, Faust, Zard and Thorn- are chained unmoving to gurneys with the arcane suppression chain I provided to them. Flanking them are the public faces of the Great Ten: August Captain in Iron, Socialist Red Guardsman, Thundermind and Celestial Archer. Around _them_ are Xeno-Team soldiers, Committee functionaries and a few journalists. They clearly want this recorded properly.

The Committee does have wizards of their own but sadly the only Chinese sorcerers with enough power and experience to handle these four were killed during Mao's era. Too independent. Just wouldn't get with the program. And -while I'm not sure how much of the propaganda about them to believe- even the internal documents I acquired suggested that they were a fairly nasty bunch.

"Wotan, Felix Faust, William Asmodeus Zard and Blackbriar Thorn. You have been found guilty of mass murder-" There wasn't really much doubt, but my smile grows a little at the news anyway. "-of in excess of one thousand individuals as well as lesser offences too numerous to mention. Though it is likely that we will never know the precise magnitude of your evil the law demands only one sentence. Captain!"

Captain Fang bows to the bench and then barks an order. The microphones don't quite pick it up and his rigid epidermis makes it impossible to read his lips but everyone around him hears it. Everyone save for Socialist Red Guardsman moves away from the condemned. Hm. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that they're using Gu Lao for this. Despite his spree-killing tendencies he's still well respected amongst the party old guard for his hard-line beliefs. Personally, I don't think even _this_ could rehabilitate the man who's claim to fame is that he soloed Tiananmen Square, but I understand why they might try. Having Zou Kang pull them apart would ruin his image, Xu Tao's arrows wouldn't cut it with immortals -I think, anyway. Need to check exactly what they can do.- and while I'm sure Captain Fang would be happy to spear each of them until they were fully incinerated, the greater visual impact of-

The iris over Guardsman Gu's chest plasma cannon opens. I _had_ assumed that his suit focused his radiation, but it doesn't. Instead, it uses it to power both the suit's systems and an extremely powerful chest mounted plasma cannon. He looks to Captain Fang, who points to the condemned with his spear. The cannon glows and then:

Pfsssshhhh! Pfsssshhhh! Pfsssshhhh! Pfsssshhhh!

Not even ash remains. Captain Fang looks at the charred ground for a moment before lowering his spear and nodding. The image transitions back to the studio.

"Computer, off." The holo screen disappears. Zatanna's no longer gripping my arm and other than Kon the rest of my team mates look more than a little shocked as well. I feel a momentary urge to be flippant about it. To come up with some sort of triumphant one liner. No. I need to get them on-side.

Wonder Woman slowly turns to me. "You took them to China?"

I nod. "They're a permanent member of the UN Security Council, they took more fatalities than nearly any other country and their holding facilities are better than India's. It seemed only reasonable."

"You knew that they'd be killed."

"Executed. A fair trial with transcripts being made publicly available was one of my conditions to handing them over. America, Atlantis and Themiscyra all have the death penalty for certain classes of offence. And lets not pretend that there was any doubt of their guilt."

"They were arrested in America! Do you know how many international conventions you broke doing that?"

"I no longer have confidence in American justice in these matters. Not after Wotan's repeated escapes. Not after what they did with Werner Vertigo."

Richard winces. Wonder Woman's expression darkens. Everyone else just looks confused.

Artemis checks that everyone else is as ignorant as she is before asking the question: "Whaaat did they do with Count Vertigo?"

**9th November**  
**20:18 GMT -4**

"They... Um. What's that American phrase?" I click the fingers of my right hand theatrically, then point my index finger at the ceiling. "**Walked**, that was it. They let him **walk**."

"What?" "No way!" "But he's a criminal!"

"He has a diplomatic passport."

Oh, Wonder Woman. You aren't merely on a sticky wicket, you're on a couple of twigs floating in a vat of olive oil. And wasn't _that_ the last time I googled your name with the search filters off. Wasn't even a good likeness...

"The State Department may be unaware of this, but there _are_ procedures for requesting that a country withdraw diplomatic protection from a person."

"**As I'm sure you know**, Queen Perdita is in hospital and unable to withdraw his status."

"Then it falls to her regent. What was his name again..?"

"This isn't funny, Grayven."

"Oh, I'm _painfully_ aware of that. So, the man we want to accuse of the crime is the man who has the authority to make himself immune to prosecution! What a pity, I guess that means we'll have to ignore all those murders! If only there were some lawful mechanism by which he could lose that authority. For example, a vote by the Vlatavan Diet called by the Prime Minister in order to remove him from office for malfeasance contrary to the crown's interests **as he's constitutionally obliged to do**." I take a breath. Don't want to lose my temper now. I don't mind being seen as aggressive -I **am**aggressive- but I can't be seen as some sort of rage monster. Don't particularly want to _be_ a rage monster either. "Because **not** doing so... Not doing so indicates that he did all those things in his official capacity. For his country. And if he was doing it for his country, then... Well. If he was doing it for his country, that mean Vlatava is at war with Taiwan, Britain, France, and.. um... What's it called, that place south of Canada? Memory's like a sieve today..."

"What? Mexico?" Artemis slaps the back of Wallace's head. He looks at her in irritation and she points down with both index fingers. He looks puzzled for a moment. "Oh. Yeah, I guess it would."

Wonder Woman half turns in order to face the whole team. She's an intelligent woman; she knows that she's not going to convince me and she'll try to salvage the situation by convincing the rest of them. Good _luck_. "The State Department thinks that it would be better to wait until the Queen is fully recovered. Count Vertigo can't leave the country, he's being monitored and pressuring the Vlatavan government will just lead to unnecessary political unrest."

"So in the mean time we have a supervillain whom we can't arrest wandering around. And anyway, Queen Perdita is ten years old, she shouldn't be making that sort of decision."

"That isn't your decision to make."

"Sort of.. _**is**_. I mean, if I'm the poor sap who has to arrest him, I'd rather do so in a polity that is inclined to actually _do_something with him. Should we just have left him in Louisiana? Sorry to have bothered you Count Vertigo, our mistake, and of _course_ you can keep your Doom Vine, it's registered as a Vlatavan embassy." Yeah, she's got nothing. "Kaldur? How good's your history?"

He's clearly uncomfortable with the situation. "My.. knowledge of Atlantean history is excellent. If you are asking about the surface world..?"

"Nineteen forty two. In response to the mining of Venturian territorial waters by the allies and their attempts to set up a base in the Greater Azores which were and **are** Atlantean territory, Queen Clea allied herself with the Nazis to repel the invaders."

He nods. "Though it was hardly admirable behaviour, she knew nothing of their domestic policies. As far as she was concerned..."

I wave him off. "Yes, yes. The point I was making is, do you remember what broke the alliance?"

He blinks at me, then looks nervously at Wonder Woman. She replies for him. "**I** did."

"Yes. The Crown Princess of Themyscira attacked an Atlantean City-State. And as a result..?"

"Atlantis was.. _briefly_ at war with Themyscira, though there were no actual hostilities. I was able to discuss the matter in full with Queen Cora before things got out of hand."

"And she had authority to handle that because?"

Kaldur takes that one. "Because Queen Clea is a tributary to the ruler of Poseidonis, who knew nothing of her activity."

"Just so. _You_-" I point at Diana. "-handled it sensibly. Defeat the villain then hang around to make sure the situation is fully resolved. You didn't let things fester or dump it on someone else's lap. I don't hold Queen Perdita responsible for Count Vertigo's actions, any more than Queen Cora was responsible for Queen Clea's. I don't hold Vlatava responsible for Count Vertigo's actions. It clearly _wasn't_ an action taken in the service of his country. All I ask, is that mass murderers go to prison. Well, either _that_ or..." I nod at the space the holo screen formerly occupied. "Criminals like that shouldn't get to just.. walk away from their crimes. And if I'm faced with a choice between a polity that will punish a criminal.. and a polity that won't... Where do you think I'm going to take them?"

"Was one of your other conditions that they guarantee to execute them?"

"No. I don't dictate policy to the People's Republic of China's Standing Committee on Metahuman Affairs. But as a point of interest; Chairman Jiang Eng doesn't have any children. He does have a niece and he _did_ have a nephew. The boy was six years old. During the _split_, he tried boiling some rice for his little sister, because she was hungry. He managed to.. tip a large saucepan of near-boiling water over himself. He lived until just after the merger, not much longer than that." I look her in the eyes. "It's the personal stories that really bring it _home_, isn't it? I mean, you see the numbers and it's just a _number_. I didn't get it until I had to..." I wave in the general direction of 'outside'. "Well. Do you think I should visit the State Department officials who made that decision and read them testimonials from all the families who lost children to the vine's Smilex? Maybe I should pick Count Werner up and take him to Taiwan, I'm surprisingly popular over there. I'm sure I can convince them to see it my way with regard to his 'immunity'. Maybe I could join the Taiwanese air force and carry out a retaliatory strike on their behalf? Or, hell, I'm rich. Maybe I could take the case to the Supreme Court? Or a major newspaper? I could _buy_ one, do some agitating."

"That isn't necessary. They're hopeful that the queen will be well enough to direct the Diet to remove his protection herself in a few weeks."

"It wasn't a few weeks a month ago when they made the decision to soft pedal this. One good thing about America electing everyone is that when **everyone** involved in this comes up for re-election I'll be running campaign adverts telling the electorate exactly what they were involved in."

"You'd destroy their careers because they waited a month?"

"Yes. Yes I would. Eight hundred and sixteen people die and the Injustice League's leader walks? **Yes**."

She looks over my face. She can't think I don't mean it, can she? I've already made the adverts. Should I show them to her? Whatever she's looking for, she doesn't find it. She then looks to my team mates. They look sullen. Even Kon won't meet her eyes. Finding no support, she nods to herself. "I will inform the rest of the Justice League what has happened."

I nod at her as she walks towards the zeta tube. I'd say 'tail between her legs' but given what I just did to her she actually seems pretty together. I feel a momentary pang of sympathy. I needed to do that but I don't feel particularly good about it.

"Recognised, Wonder Woman, zero three."

I wait for the glow to die down. No one says anything. "I did some thinking, while I was scraping the remains of dead children out of crashed vehicles over these last two days, and I have reached three important conclusions. Firstly, I am not pulling my weight. I assumed that the Justice League had global problems in hand and that I could more or less coast through my year on Earth. I no longer believe this to be the case. Secondly; that the way the League deals with empowered criminals does not work. Wotan was captured after he tried putting out the sun, after he released the vines on the world as part of the Injustice League and on numerous occasions _before_ he had a good go at murdering the world's children. A new way of dealing with people in his category is required. Thirdly; that while I don't care for the Justice League I _do_ care for all of you. As such, I would like to offer to aid you all to the fullest extent that I am able."

I have their attention. Time to -as the Americans say- knock it out of the park.

"How would you like to become gods?"

**9th November**  
**20:18 GMT -4**

Blank incomprehension. Not _too_ surprising, I suppose.

Kaldur recovers first. "What.. exactly.. do you mean ?"

"When Richard and I encountered the godlings of New Genesis I attempted to secure examples of their technology for further study. I was not as unsuccessful as my official report would have you believe."

Richard is not happy. "You lied on a mission report!"

"Yes. Ring, armour." My normal dull-grey armour is replaced with my dark-grey-with-orange-tron-lines Apokolips-inspired number. A visor -the scouter design was fun but this really makes more sense- covers my eyes and Father Box appears at my waist. "While you and the godlings destroyed _nearly_ everything I **was** able to recover Mister Mannheim's harness and Desaad's Father Box. Father Box-" I strum the fingers of my right hand along the top of it.

_"Ploong."_

"-has been most helpful in adapting their technology to serve me. And I would like to offer to use the knowledge I have gained to improve your equipment as well. Here-" visors appear in front of each of them. "-try them. They'll see through any form of stealth and can give an approximate threat assessment of whatever you look at. M'gann, it uses.. well, I don't actually understand the system, but it should be able to go invisible or intangible when you do."

Kon's the first to take the proffered eyewear, though he doesn't put it on immediately. Next, Zatanna takes hers, then Artemis and Kaldur. M'gann, Wallace and Richard are a little more reluctant but when Zatanna puts hers on to no ill effect they take theirs as well. I tried to colour coordinate with their uniforms. Zatanna's is grey, Artemis's dark green, Kon's is black, Kaldur's is deep red, M'gann's is light green, Wallace's is yellow and Richard's is pale red.

"Observe." I generate a opaque orange barrier around myself and hold up two fingers on my right hand. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

My own orange shades show me Zatanna looking directly at me. "Two."

I raise two fingers on my right. "And now."

"Four."

I drop the barrier. "M'gann, would you please go invisible."

"Um. Oookay." M'gann puts on her own glasses and remains exactly as she was. I lower my glasses slightly to check and yes, she is indeed concealed from normal sight. "Can you see me?"

Kon has his on now, as do Kaldur and Artemis. Seeing them nod, Wallace dons his own. "Whooow. Dude, you have to try this."

Richard remains reluctant. "And you were planning on sharing these when, exactly?"

"If I thought they would be essential for a mission. I know, I know, that wasn't the right thing to do, but I assumed that your mentors would have your equipment requirements in hand. Now that I realise.. that I can't rely on that, I'm going to be putting more effort into things like this. For a start, I also have armour-" I tap my chest with my right hand. "-like mine for each of you. Sorry M'gann, it is _somewhat_ malleable but I haven't worked out how to make it truly shapeshift."

Artemis tries looking at her glasses from the outside, trying to spot the heads up display from the outside. Can't be done. She then narrows her eyes to look at me. "How good's this armour?"

"It would easily stop a depleted uranium shell from a modern main battle tank. If you're talking about resistance to super powers, my own resistances makes it hard for me to fully test. Certainly better than anything you could get anywhere else."

Zatanna looks at me uncomfortably. "What.. did you mean about making us _gods_?"

"Err, sorry. Think.. low level pagan gods, not..." I wave my right hand at the ceiling. "Not Jehovah. Father Box contained full data on the nature of the Forever People and their ilk, and it turns out that the thing which makes them 'unusual' is fully compatible with Human soul-structures. Between Father Box and the Sphere-" It warbles. "-I've learned how to... It's difficult to fully explain... Cut additional channels? Allow spiritual growth far above what a normal person could ever hope to gain on their own."

Kaldur looks thoughtful as he nods. "Like Atlantean arcane tattoos."

"Only more so. So much more so. You may have noticed that I don't look like-" I fix my eyes on Wallace. "-Boulder the Rock Monster any longer."

"Ooooh. Yoooou heard that, huh?"

"Yes. Quite apt, I thought. Boulder the Rock Monster indeed. Most amusing. Among other changes-"

"You _really_ think you're a god?"

"Sadly, Richard, no. I'm not. Having had no soul before coming here Father Box has had its work cut out performing remedial aetheric grafts. I have.. a presence now, that I didn't have before, but it'll be a very long time before I qualify for even the lowest levels of divinity. I do intend to get there eventually, mind you."

Kon doesn't look like he's in a good place, but he musters up the will to ask anyway. "Does that.. _just_ work on Humans? Or would it... I mean..."

"I'm afraid so. There _might_ be ways to make it work on other species, but it's beyond me at the moment. Good news though; thanks to your grandfather I now know enough about Kryptonian genetics that I'm able to fully convert you, if that's something that you want."

Gobsmacked. "What?"

"Ring, Father Box plus Kryptonian genealogical data. I'd have to deactivate your powers temporarily and I _would_ recommend being unconscious for the process, but I **can** replace your Human and Genomorph elements with fully Kryptonian ones. You'd have a choice between becoming a full clone of Kal-El or.. um.. I can find Kryptonian near-equivalents for your nonKryptonian attributes. I'd recommend the second, but it's up to you."

He's not looking at anyone and is blinking rapidly as he tries to comprehend what I just told him. I never had a little brother and my relationship with my younger sister was more one of equals. She was always more assertive than me. My relationship with Kon.. it's most important to me out of all my team mates. I even did something I'd been putting off ever since getting here in the hope that he'd be able to forge a relationship with at least _one_ Kryptonian. Don't _think_ she spotted it...

"What..? What's the difference?"

"**You**, are a product of hardware and software. I won't change the patterns of your neural activity but if you try to run yourself on altered hardware.. your new fully Kryptonian brain, then the way you think will change. It'll probably change a little anyway, but going for equivalence will keep the change to a minimum."

He nods, a little dazed, then starts as something occurs to him. "What about M'gann?" He looks at her then back to me. "Have you got something for her?"

"Of course. Presents for all the boys and girls." I face her. "For _you_, M'gann, I can remove the blocks which make your entire species afraid of fire."

She frowns, confused. "But.. that's just.. I mean, _all_ Martians are afraid of fire. It's an evolutionary thing."

"Wrong, I'm afraid. It's a rather sophisticated piece of arcanotechnological engineering. Frankly, now that I can analyse it, it's got the Guardians' grubby pawprints all over it. I mean, did you not wonder why it occurred in **every single** member of your species? No exceptions, even the mentally deranged? Why a race of telepaths couldn't remove a simple _phobia_? No, it's artificial and I can get rid of it." I make eye contact with each of my team mates in turn. "Look, I understand this is a lot to take in. I'll put the armour in the armoury. Feel free to just try it out at your leisure. Talk about my offer with your mentors but please believe me when I say that I am motivated by my desire for your well-being. I want you.. I want us **all** to be the best we can be." I pause for a moment. There is more I could say but I think it's best to leave it there. I can talk to them individually-

"If I said 'yes', what would it do to my magic?"

Zatanna appears to be giving it serious thought. Interesting. Richard looks decidedly unhappy about this turn of events. "Zatanna, you can't seriously be okay with this! He just _proved_ you can't trust-"

"I nearly lost my dad last week." Richard shuts up. Does she know his circumstances? "If Gravyen hadn't stopped him, he'd be Nabu right now. And if it's just.." She turns back to me. "It's just a power up, right?"

"More or less. Understand, I can't _completely_ predict the results. According to Father Box and confirmed by the Sphere, your instinctive grasp of the arcane would improve, as would your magical presence and energy reserves. That's in addition to the life extension effect that would give you more time to study and improve, and the physical buffs which would make you more likely to survive long enough to do so."

"And what about..? You said it involved changing my soul. If I went for it..."

"The add-ons would still be filled by.. made of.. earthly magics. Your soul would still be drawn to the same place upon your death, if that's what concerns you."

She nods. "I need to check this with my dad. But, if it really does what you say.. then I'm interested."

"I'm.. glad to hear it. Mister Zatara can contact me through Nabu whenever is convenient for him." She nods. "Oh, and before I go." I fix my eyes on Mister Tawny. "The physical replication is flawless, Mister J'onzz, but you haven't quite got the hang of Mister Tawny's body language. Plus..." I tap my glasses. "Glasses." I turn to return to my room. "I'll expect the real Mister Tawny back by breakfast. Don't let the door catch your tail on the way out."

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

.

**10th November  
06:22 GMT -4**

I sit on the settee in the living area, staring blankly at the television's channel select screen. A thousand channels and nothing's on. Or at least nothing I feel like watching. I'm having trouble working up the motivation to do anything, actually. After getting back to the mountain... Last night? This morning? Not sure. Sleep didn't seem to be happening, and lying in the dark just made me keep thinking of the bridge. Odd, really. I didn't have this sort of problem when I got back from Santa Prisca, which was my first exposure to real bloodletting. Didn't bat an eyelid about sending a tungsten slug through Ra's' head. Cut off Ocean Master's hands without a second thought. Even the rats... And it's not as if the manners of their deaths were that unusual. Car crashes happen every day. Plane crashes once or twice a year. But.. so _much_ of it.

M'gann and Kon have school in a couple of hours. I already readied all of the components of their breakfast and left them on the work surface. No point putting the toast in yet. Their lunch boxes.. um, _bags_ are assembled. Zatanna's too. She decided that she'd rather stay here than go home so I took a few minutes to transport all of her stuff to one of the spare rooms. She picked the one nearest to mine which.. I mean, I wanted to be on hand more but having seen the magnitude of the job outside... The numbers just become so much more _real_ when you're the one who-

Alert! Connection made to monitored telephone line.

Oh? Which one?

Second public telephone, BP, Happy Harbour branch.

I frown. That's the number I sometimes give out as being **mine** and I'd be surprised if someone's phoning a public phone for another reason. Ring, who's calling?

Call originates from GBS building, Metropolis.

Hm. Well, not like I've got anything better to do. I lift the ring to my left ear. Answer.

"Orange Lantern two eight one four. What can I do for you?"

"Oh! Um, hi! I didn't think you'd actually pick up!"

Don't recognise the voice. "Right. Who am I talking to, please?"

"Sorry! Sorry! Dana Dearden. I'm a researcher with GBS Morning News."

"And what can I do for you, Miss Dearden?"

"Miss Grant wanted to me to try and get hold of you. Can I put her through to you right now?"

I guess she's important enough not to have to make her own phone calls. "Certainly."

There's a short delay. No hold music. I shake my right hand in the direction of the television and the ring finds a picture of a meadow accompanied by quiet birdsong. Good. I can cope with that.

"Good morning Orange Lantern. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us."

"Good morning Miss Grant. No problem at all. How can I be of service?"

"I understand that you've been involved in the recovery effort."

"Recovery effort? I suppose that's one way of putting it. Yes, um, I've.. been in Gotham and New York here in the States, Liverpool, Calcutta... A bunch of small places on, um.. aircraft flight paths..."

"What are you doing now?"

"Heh. Um... Sitting at home watching television, actually."

The line goes quiet. Yeah, that's.. probably not the way I should have gone with that. "Do you.. do you really think this is a good time to watching TV?"

"It was this or try Call of Glory.. and I don't know where Kid Flash hid the controllers."

"You are aware that the death toll stands at around **eight hundred thousand**?"

"Miss Grant, I really don't need this from you, alright? I haven't eaten anything for five days. I haven't slept for five days and whenever I try.. whenever I close my eyes all I can see is piles of mangled wreckage and children's bodies. I'm sitting at home right now because Wonder Woman ordered me to. She ordered me to stop because I'd got to the point that I couldn't cope and I'm.. I'm _sorry_ about that, I realise it's so much worse for the parents, but don't think I'd be much use to anyone at the moment."

Another moment of quiet. "I am **so** sorry. I hadn't realised-"

"No, no, it's fine. I can see that I might have given the wrong impression."

"Are... Are you alright to carry on?"

"Yes, certainly. That's.. the American thing to do, isn't it? Talk about your feelings? It's supposed to help, may as well give it a go."

"Can you.. can you give us an idea of what sort of work you've been involved in?"

"Ahhh, yeah. There was an aircraft, something wrong with its autopilot. When the split happened the adult version carried on but as far as we can tell the children's version crashed almost immediately. When both Earths remerged, the child world's plane vanished and the children's bodies appeared back in their seats next to their parents. I can't.. can't imagine what that would have been like. After they.. after it landed, they tried to get the parents off... Some of them just..." I remember the crying, wailing Indian woman when I first went in there. Inconsolable doesn't quite cover it. "Anyway, um, I got called in to clean up the inside of the plane. Make sure all the.. the parts ended up in the right body bags. Thing is, at this stage there isn't really much we can do. Most of the deaths happened in the first few minutes. All the super urgent stuff.. the we-need-a-superhero-here-now stuff, that's already happened."

"Where were you when it happened?"

"Gotham. I was having dinner with... Well, it doesn't matter. The staff and most of the other diners disappeared. I tried to get in contact with my superiors and got nothing. Ended up on the Vincefinkel Bridge just after the car crashes blocked it."

"I'm sorry, but.. you were on the **child** side?"

"Yes."

"Do you know why?"

"Because the individual who cast the spell really hates me. He said as much when we confronted him, though I suppose he _might_ have been lying. Seemed in character, though."

"You know who it was?"

"Of course I do, I was part of the attack that stopped it. Hasn't that information been released yet?"

"**N**o. Can you tell us?"

I haven't been told _not_ to, I suppose. "The main instigator's called Klarion, and the adult side was being handled by William Zard, Blackbriar Thorn, Felix Faust and Dark Druid."

"Are they in custody?"

"I don't... Last I saw, Batman had what's left of Blackbriar Thorne. He'll regenerate in a few months. Nabu-. _Fate_ took Zard and Faust, don't know what he did with them. Klarion and Druid vanished. A few of us caught up with Druid Saturday morning but he threw enough undead at us that he was able to escape again."

"Are they still a threat?"

"Druid threw an undead monster-baby at me that could cut through my barriers like they weren't there, and Klarion's far more powerful. The League.. I'm sure they're on it... You know what the death toll from this is better than I do."

"Could they do that again?"

"I don't think so. They were using a.. this crystal thing. Last I saw Fate had it. Doesn't mean they can't do something similar, of course."

"What do you think of Senator Knight's call for magic to be made illegal?"

"W-? It's mor_onic_. That's like saying 'oh no, the Soviet Union has nuclear weapons. Quick; let's keep ourselves safe by banning _**fire**_'. _Ugh_." The sheer stupid makes me shake my head. "Mass murder is illegal, but that didn't stop them. The best way to prevent something like this happening again is to have people _study_ magic and learn how to counter it. For goodness sake, this is vital to the world's defence. To _America's_ defence. Why isn't this happening already? It's _so completely __**obvious**_. You don't deal with a threat by sticking your head in the sand, you deal with it by studying it until you know how to beat it."

"That's about all we've got time for. Thank you for your time, Orange Lantern, and for all your good work, from me and from the GBS audience."

"Well, if they get to actually hear me this time. I seem to remember being cut from most of the broadcasts of the Taiwan interview."

Small pause. What? "They're hearing you now. You're live on GBS Breakfast."

I blink. "This is live?"

AAAAAAAAAAAA.

Alternative.

**10th November**  
**11:29 GMT -4**

"...and I'd _take_ it from Batman or Kal-El, but she's killed hundreds of people! Does she really expect me to believe that nineteen year old Gefreiter Schmitt of the Luftwaffe was _that much_ more worthy of death than the four who -by most recent estimates- killed something like two hundred _**thousand**_ people -mostly young children- _**each**_?"

Mister Scott nods and I relax a little. I don't know if he actually understands where I'm coming from. Perhaps he holds that 'war' is a separate special type of event that should have no bearing on other times. It's not a view I share but it's common enough. Certainly his own war record shows that he was willing to employ a degree of viciousness wholly absent from his earlier and later conduct.

I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting Wonder Woman's response to Tuesday's.. discussions, to be. I certainly wasn't expecting a meeting mediated by Mister Scott. Wonder Woman's waiting in one of the meeting rooms while he and I thrash out what I actually want to get out of this in another. Since I dropped in on him on my first day here I haven't really had that much to do with him. He's sort of tried to get to know me better a few times but we don't really have anything in common. And.. I.. let him believe that my exposure to Venom Buster was accidental. Prrrobably shouldn't have done that. He looks.. _frailer_ than when we first met. I hope it isn't due to _my_ actions, he's a good guy.

"You think she's being hypocritical?" I nod. "Legally, there's a difference between war and policing. I'm sure you realise that."

"I never understood why being a soldier is considered to be more moral than being an executioner. In a fight between modern nations, a soldier can be reasonably confident that most of those he fights against are men much like himself. People he'd probably get on quite well with if he met them socially. And yet, he's suddenly expected to kill them and be okay with that when the only real difference between them is one of geography. An executioner knows that the people he's called upon to kill have been tried and found guilty of some grotesque crime by as fair a court as his society can provide, and in contrast to deaths in warfare effort will be made to make the death as swift and painless as possible." I'm not completely sure that having Ghost Fox Killer rip your soul out of your body and enslave it for eternity is exactly a _painless_ death, but I couldn't think of anything else that would work on Wotan, Faust or Thorn. Guardsman's efforts were more for publicity than anything substantial.

"She was a lot younger back then. I don't think she'd do that sort of thing _now_." He shakes his head. "I won't try and convince you that they didn't deserve it... I'm not sure I believe it myself. But, there's a protocol to follow. You ignored your superiors in the field and you've caused a major diplomatic dispute between the US and China."

"I think I aggravated the US government. I don't think many US citizens really mind all that much. The US doesn't have the best record for executing murderous supervillains."

"You think execution is the only correct response?"

I shake my head. "If they could be reliably contained or depowered? No. But if you choose not to execute people like that.. and you _can't_ contain or depower them... As I see it, that makes _you_ responsible, in part, for their next rampage. To my mind it isn't a question of what right I have to make that decision as.. what right do I have to condemn their future victims? I wasn't joking when I said that Napier should have died years ago."

"You didn't _kill_ Jack Napier."

I nod. "I didn't. And next time he breaks out..."

"Batman told me that Arkham's security's improved a lot since last time."

"He probably said the same thing the last seven times as well."

"You should give him more credit; Batman's a good guy."

I grimace. "If he's such a good guy why did he just stand there when Mister Zatara went to put the Helmet on? He was the man who nominated Mister Zatara for membership. They're _friends_."

"Diana said you got pretty angry about that."

"It's... Unconscionable. I don't understand how... If it had been you, if Mister Garrick were putting on the Helmet to protect someone, would you have intervened?"

He looks away for a moment, thinking about it. Then he nods. "Yeah, if I were on the ball, I think I would."

"I didn't expect to be able to be able to live up to League standards right away, you know? I was going to work at it, learn the craft. Then the woman I consider to be most moral out of all the people I know, who's.. pretty much become Kon's foster mother... I though I might disagree with her for _practical_ reasons, but moral ones? Never. I never imagined that she might just-" I wave my right arm in a dismissive gesture.

"You feel she let you down."

"I was expecting better. I dread to think what would have happened if I hadn't been there."

"She's pretty disappointed you just took off like that."

"I was.. furious. I'm not sure.. what decision I'd have made if I'd had a clearer head." I sigh. "I don't think anyone there would have agreed with the one I _actually_ made."

"Diana mentioned that you had anger management issues."

"She's right. I won't try and deny it."

"Where do you want to go from here?"

I'm not sure. "When I first got to this planet, I had a choice. I already had more money than I'd ever have been able to spend. I could have stuck the ring into a drawer somewhere and forgotten about it. Or, tracked down some other type of super powered technology. I didn't do either. I wanted to get involved and I decided you were my best bet because you're **Green Lantern**. You handed me off to Wonder Woman, and that was fine because.. she's Wonder Woman. Now, I've got another choice."

"Thinking of quitting?"

I shake my head. "No... Just about how I carry on. Let me show you something. Father Box; open a boom tube to Maltus."

_"Ploong."_

A small explosion and a glowing _rip_ in space appears. In the distance a planet is just visible. I've learned that opening one closer invites a rather aggressive response. Alan leans closer to get a better look. "Through there is the homeworld of the species one offshoot of which went on to become the Guardians of the Galaxy. I had a quick look earlier and a lot of them are still there. If the Controllers aren't on the planet then there will be people who know how to get hold of them. If I walked to my room, picked up the lantern and handed it back to you... I'm free. I'm at full charge. I could be there in a few minutes. I could make a deal with them, get a new power source... And I wouldn't have to put up with the League any more."

"So why don't you?"

I stare through the portal. "It would feel like losing." A little longer. "Father Box, close it." Another bang as it collapses. I sit where I am for a moment longer, then rise to my feet. "May as well do this now."

Mister Scott follows me as I leave the room. Wonder Woman's in a room down the corridor and around to the left. I don't really know how good her hearing is. The doors were shut but she'd still have heard the boom tube. She doesn't bother looking around until I sit in the seat opposite her.

"You probably feel that you can't trust me." I nod. "And you're right not to. I've been keeping a lot to myself." I pat Father Box with my right hand. "But, after Roanoke Island I find that I don't fully trust you either."

"You made a sacred oath and then tricked your way out of it at the first opportunity."

"No, I didn't. I created that program after I got back from China, and I turned it off about half an hour after you left me on Saturday." She narrows her eyes slightly. "**You** can always tell when someone's lying. Am I?"

"No. You're not."

I nod again. "You don't lie. You _hate_ lying. If I'm going to follow your lead I need to be able to believe in you in a way I just don't at the moment. So I'm going to ask a question and whatever answer you give me I'll accept. If it hadn't been Mister Zatara, if it had been **Donna Troy**, would you have intervened?"

She frowns. "Donna's hardly any older than Zatanna, it's not the same."

"Would you. Have intervened?"

"Yes. I would."

I relax, nodding. "Thank you. Thank you. I wasn't lying when I said that I'd rather you were right, either. I'm.. prepared to follow your instruction. I'll listen to you, for the next seven months at least."

"It's not that simple. I can't teach someone who has no interest in taking in what I have to say, and I'm not sure that I want to teach someone with the sort of uncontrolled temper that you have."

I nod my head to the side. "Alright. What would you like me to do about it?"

***

**10th November**  
**14:03 GMT -4**

There are only a few of us in the room. I'd known that Lantern Gardner had worked as a prison counsellor but I hadn't realised that he still ran sessions like this. Still, it could be much worse and.. this may even help me. I slowly rise from my all-too-small plastic chair and address the room.

"Good afternoon everyone. My name is Grayven, and I'm a very angry man."

RRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Resume.

**11th November  
16:12 GMT -4**

The lights are off as we crouch in the darkness. Teekl is _not_ happy about having a sheet draped over her but we can't even pull off a fake surprise if her orange glow gives us away. Fatty's tolerating it much better. He actually made himself useful during the disaster recovery so I've been letting him out more. He's taken to flying much more readily than Teekl, can sense magic -including people's souls- and appears to be able to consume different forms of energy. Not long after the fight with Dark Druid I watched him suck out a fire that threatened to engulf a Gotham tenement. Turns out that some of the child side fires I saw were transferred over when the merge happened, raging infernos appearing from nowhere and taking everyone by-.

No, I'm not going to spoil this. M'gann, Kon and I spent a good deal of time setting this up and I've never even been to a fake-surprise party before. This is also Kaldur's first full day back from Atlantis. He was only in hospital for three days while they healed him up, but then he was under doctor's orders not to strain himself and his mother decided that meant spending some time at home. He told me that Garth and Tula are considering spending some time in the cave as part of their training. Perhaps more importantly as far as I'm concerned, Queen Mera gave Sephtian a Royal Warrant of Appointment after hearing how his wards let us tank shots from a Lord of Chaos. I need to visit him again and find out what that means for my orders, current and future.

Oh, and congratulate him.

Since my interview went viral -I stopped looking after seeing a satirical news conference where a comedian dressed as Senator Knight earnestly called for fire to be banned to protect us all from the godless communists- everyone's been treating me with kid gloves. Ms Lance even offered to 'listen, if I needed to talk'. I had the ring check me for post traumatic stress disorder but apparently I'm not showing most of the symptoms. According to it I _can_ manage with about half an hour's sleep a week but that doesn't sound like a good idea to me. I managed a full night last night, no unpleasant dreams. I think my problem was more to do with a particular shocking image getting lodged in my mind -like how some people can tell you exactly what they were doing when they heard about JFK getting shot- more than any sort of enduring problem. Maybe enlightenment has practical value beyond ring usage?

If I strain my ears I can just about hear Wallace walking through the corridor leading to the kitchen area.

"Zeta tube network now offline due to extreme atmospheric conditions."

Hadn't really noticed those. I haven't left the mountain since Diana ordered me off duty and it's not like this place has windows. Maybe I should talk to Queen Mera about that Dolmen Gate? If the zeta network can be taken down by inclement weather it might be worth investing in a second system.

"Whow, I just made it." He's in the kitchen now. I see M'gann gesture towards the light switches. "Be a _tragedy_ if I missed my own-"

The lights go on and Wallace stumbles back, shielding his eyes. Not sure if he's faking that. I mean, this party was pretty much his idea but the lights are rather bright.

"Surprise!" "Surprise!" "Surprise!" "Surprise!" "Surprise!" "Surprise!" "Surprise!" "Surprise!" "Surprise!" "S-surprise!" "Surprise!" "Huh?"

Wallace looks at us, takes a quick peek at the tables laden with food and presents, and _**then**_ pantomimes surprise.

"Whaaat? Aww, you _guuuys_. You shouldn't **have**."

Over-actor. Teekl throws off the sheet covering her in relief, sits and starts licking her left forepaw. Fatty picks up the discarded sheet and stuffs it into his mouth. Teekl's been putting quite a lot of effort into ignoring him. I'm not sure if she thinks of him as competition or just as a nuisance.

In addition to the team, Mister Alan, Red Tornado and Danni have joined us. Robert's standing back slightly. His first visit to the cave was this morning -afternoon, UK time- and he hasn't quite got his head around the whole thing yet. Aside from nerves he seems to be fitting in alright, save for an awkward moment when he told Kon that he 'didn't know Superman had a son'. I took it as a mark of how far Kon's come that all it got was a muttered 'he _doesn't_' and a change of subject rather than a stomp off.

Robin folds his arms across his chest. "Not like you've been hinting for _days_ or anything."

Wallace grins as M'gann levitates a party hat onto his head. I'm already wearing mine. Normally I have a problem finding hats big enough, especially the sort of hats found in Christmas crackers. I've pretty much had to master the art of getting them to perch on my head without falling in the gravy. Kon lights the candles as M'gann leads him over to the table with the birthday cakes. M'gann originally wanted to do two identical cakes, but what's the point in that? Any flavour can get boring eventually.

There's a tap on my arm and I realise that the rest of my team have gathered around the table. Danni's comes up alongside me and is looking at me curiously. She's wearing what is basically a slightly updated version of her old costume

"Hi. Sorry I haven't.. I didn't get in touch after Gotham. Been a bit busy."

"Was your meeting with Miss Robinson productive?"

"I think so. Painting's back on the wall and the owner will be upgrading their security, she's got an opportunity for a new life. I'll be checking up on her, but I'm hopeful."

She nods, then turns her attention to the table as Wallace blows out the candles. "Several members of the Justice League have expressed concern for your psychological welfare. Given what has taken place, I share their concern."

"I'm fine. Once I got over the initial shock... Don't think I'll try working five days straight again though. That _wasn't_ clever."

"No, it was not. Do not do it again." She follows me as I amble over to the birthday table huddle.

M'gann kisses Wallace on the forehead as she hands him a plate of cake. "Happy Birthday." He doesn't even try to conceal his disappointment. Honestly.

"May I try a slice of the cake?"

M'gann looks at Danni in surprise. "Can you..? I didn't know you could eat."

"I gain no useful nutrition from ingestion but I am able to taste." She frowns. "Though I cannot say how comparable the sense is to yours."

"It's not gunna make you _explode_ or anything, right?" Wallace leers at her. "'Cause that'd be a waste of some _fiiine_engineering."

Ugh. Fortunately it doesn't look like Danni cared. "Though some of my sense-analysis subroutines have been.. black boxed..." She looks at me.

I rise my hands defensively. "I really don't remember doing it."

"I do not believe that any of them could cause a power surge large enough to make any part of me explode."

"Here you go." M'gann hands her a plate with a slice of cake and a cake fork. She takes it and hold it up to her nose to sniff it. "Isss something wrong?"

"This is the first time I have eaten cake with my current oral system." She taps the sponge with her right index finer. "Father did not believe that an accurate sense of taste was important in my infiltration mission. To this point I have only experimented with toast."

"That's..." Wallace squints. "Reeeally not that experimental."

"If you were ever to develop a synokinetic sense I would similarly advise you against experimenting with it on a magma field." She dips her right index finger into the icing and then pulls it away, a small white blob remaining on the tip. She looks at it for a moment, head slightly tilted to the side. Then she puckers her lips and slowly slides her finger into her mouth. There's a very quiet sucking sound and then she slides the saliva-slicked finger out again, her tongue following it a short way out and giving the tip a farewell lick.

Wallace's mouth is hanging open. I have to blink for a moment myself. M'gann just looks puzzled. Danni looks vacant for a moment as she processes the sensation. "I think.. I like it." She nods, takes hold of her fork, cuts off a slice and delicately places it inside her mouth before closing her lips around it and slowly pulling the fork free with a sigh of pleasure.

I _really_ hope I didn't program her to do that.

I shake myself slightly and reorientate on the birthday boy with a smile. "Wallace, happy birthday." I take my well-wrapped gift out of subspace and float it over to him. Weighs a bit. "If NASA ask -they _won't_, but if they _do_\- this didn't come from me."

**11th November  
16:19 GMT -4**

"They are? Are you allowed to tell me who?"

Red Tornado remains motionless as he considers. "At this stage all that Batman has requested is that names be forwarded to him for consideration. Presumably he also intends to perform background checks."

"Do you know if Yao Fei's on the list?"

"Ah. That would be the Accomplished Perfect Physician. I believe that Batman intends to nominate him. He has forwarded a dossier on Yao Fei to each League member. Having read it, I am minded to vote in favor."

"Do you know what the Chinese wanted in exchange for releasing him?"

"Batman made no mention of an exchange. Perhaps it will be discussed at the meeting."

"Do you know.. sorry, being silly. Ring, location of Yao Fei."

"Yao Fei is located in the Chinese consulate in New York."

Excellent. "Do you think any of the other members would object?"

"It seems unlikely, though any other member of the 'Great Ten' would have faced opposition from several League members."

"But he _isn't_ a member of the Great Ten. That's why I suggested him."

Red Tornado pauses, tilting his head slightly. "Yao Fei joined the Great Ten last month. Presumably he would remain on their roster while serving with the League."

"That's what it cost." I suppose... "Compared to what I thought they might ask it's cheap, though I don't imagine he's entirely happy about it. Can you tell me who else is likely to get in?"

"Lantern Gardner, I would imagine. Green Arrow will almost certainly suggest his own protégé. Beyond that there are many notable superheroes worthy of consideration. Yourself, for example."

"Huh?"

"I am a little surprised that Wonder Woman has not mentioned the possibility."

"Um... That's..." I shake my head. "I've only got four months experience, that's not going to happen."

"I had less than four months experience when I joined the Justice Society, as did Red Inferno. I think you would do well in the League."

"Um, thank you. Is Danni likely to get a nomination?"

"Not..." He turns his head to look at her where she sits talking to Cornwall. He mimics her as she raises her hand and they both generate a small flickering flame. "She has shared her disquiet about discovering her true nature with me. I do not believe that it would be appropriate to push her forward until she has found a mode of existence with which she can be content."

I nod. Given how his brother responded I can well understand his reluctance, but wouldn't actually giving her a role help? She certainly _seemed_ to like what we were doing in Gotham... Don't know. I take a look around the room. Artemis is grinning evilly on the settee next to a gobsmacked Wallace while Zatanna and Robin smirk at them. Teekl's shrunk down and is lying across Zatanna's left shoulder. Kon and M'gann are giggling about something while Wolf gnaws on something at their feet. Kaldur's talking to Mister Allen and Richard's trying to copy a circle of fire Danni's holding in front of her. I wonder why Mister Allen's bothering with a costume in here? Given how fast he can change-

"Attention team." Batman's voice over the speakers and everyone freezes. "Suit up." Plates are downed, hands and mouths are wiped and I realise that I'm standing at parade rest. "Polar stealth, mission briefing in five."

Mister Allen raises his right hand to wave at Wallace. "Catch you later, Wally." He disappears in a red blur. Fatty notices that no one is paying attention to the food and tips a bowl of salted nuts down his gullet. Zatanna takes Teekl off her shoulder and puts her down on a chair. My cat then jumps down and grows back to lion size. "Romra raeppa." Zatanna's armour appears at the same time as I transfer mine onto me from subspace. Robert runs for his kit bag -lucky he brought it at all really- and pulls out his uniform. M'gann shifts her clothing to her costume and Kon and Kaldur hurry away to the armoury. There doesn't seem to be an easy way to quickly don their armour but they've got it down to _just_ under five minutes.

Artemis looks at me expectantly and I ring her, Robin's and Wallace's uniforms onto them. I get a thank you nod from Robin but Wallace doesn't seem to notice. "A mission on my birthday! This is _s_weet! Who d'you think Batman's sending us up against? Mirror Master? The HIVE? Black Manta?"

Robin smiles as we start walking in the direction of the training room. "I'm sure Batman will tell us during the briefing."

Red Tornado looks at Wallace. "I imagine that the alert is most likely associated with the unseasonably bad weather we are having."

Artemis looks puzzled. "It is kinda early, but it's snowed in November before."

"The formation of snow requires a particular pattern of air currents and humidity. Neither were present in the run up to the current snow storm and in any case it would be highly unusual for a natural area of snowfall to cover the entire country."

Looking back I see Robert take off his shirt and go to unbuckle his trousers before freezing when he notices that Danni is watching him. Getting changed in front of people is just something he's going to have to get used to, though I should probably extend my costume-storing offer to him. "Danni, do you want to come along?" And now Robert's caught preparing to drop his trousers while everyone looks at him. Ring, changing screen.

"Cheers mate!"

Danni looks at us, tilts her head to the side as she thinks about it and then rises to her feet, joining us as we walk towards the training room.

Wallace rubs his chin. "So, Captain Cold, Mister Freeze-" It's his birthday, I'm not going to correct him. "-Killer Frost, Icicle and Junior are all in Belle Reve. How many ice villains are left?"

Robin looks at him. "Could Weather Wizard-"

"Mark Mardon." I _tried_.

"-be behind it?"

"Not unless he's got a _maaajor_ power up."

"I don't suppose there were plans for a Red Blizzard, were there?"

"Father shared no such plans with-" Tornado looks at his sister for a moment. "-me."

Danni shakes her head. "His android replica made no mention of designs for other Red robots beyond Red Volcano. However, Red Volcano did say that his future plans involved using the eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera to draw attention away while he created enough robots to fully populate this planet. It is not impossible that further new designs existed."

Tornado stops dead. "Excuse me. I am required elsewhere." He turns off down a side passage. Guess he decided to get that integrated communication system with his body rebuild afterall.

Artemis drops back in the pack to walk alongside me. "Thanks for getting Wonder Woman to lend me her bow."

"No problem. Have you got the hang of using it?"

There's a pause. "Yeah... Basically."

"Artem_is_."

"Small.. overpenetration problem." Titanium arrows survive impacts quite a bit better than her old point arrows. "But I'm on top of it. It's actually a lot easier than I thought it would be."

"Glad to hear it."

"Do you know..? I don't wanna nag or anything, but-"

"When are you going to get your own?" She nods. "I've sent Io a letter. I don't know how long it'll take her to respond, then.. you're probably going to have to go there yourself to talk to her."

"Why?"

I speak slowly. "She lives on Themyscira, I'm a man."

Her eyes dip. "Right."

"And she's probably going to want to see your technique and stuff. Um, has your mother forgiven me yet?"

"Yeah, I think so. I explained about the Ophidian, and she gets that I'm less likely to get hurt like this. You might have overdone the flowers, though."

"Did she like them?"

"One bunch of flowers is fine to say you're sorry. Two if you're _really_ sorry. Covering the entire building with flowers was _kinda_ creepy."

...

Suppose it was a bit.

**11th November  
16:27 GMT -4**

We fall in to a rough line in front of the main holographic display, Fatty.. _somewhere_ and Teekl and Danni back a little to our left. Robert tried doing the same thing until I shoved him forwards. His costume isn't up to spec yet so I altered the dye myself, turning the black cross a dull blue-grey and the red to pale grey. Stand at the back of the lecture theatre, get asked the questions. I look around as a gust of displaced air heralds Kon's arrival. He pulls up just before reaching us and touches down in a perfect landing. There might be times when it would be convenient to carry his armour in the ring, but the fact is that without the Ophidian supercharging me loading and unloading exotic materials takes too much power to be practical. And it's not like I can make him or Kaldur another suit. Well, maybe Kaldur, eventually, but Nth metal is right out.

Neither material really works with the camouflage fabric the rest of us have covering our armour. Kon compromised by getting a surcoat in white and pale blue. His arms and legs are still a darker grey but without some sort of attachment point on the armour itself I don't think a sleeve is really practical. He grins at me for a moment then tugs the coat straight and orientates on the blank holoscreen. A moment later Kaldur approaches at a jog. He's easily strong enough that the armour... Oh, that's interesting. He's solved the camouflage problem by coating himself in a layer of frost. Easy to do with the trident and more practical than a material cover. And the insulation effect of the armour and underclothes mean that compared to the ocean temperature Atlantians are designed to withstand the low temperature isn't a problem.

"Pst, Oh El." I lean forwards a little to look at Wallace. "Where'd Flash go?"

"W-. Kid Flash, he runs at the speed of light. Even if I told you his current lo-"

The holoscreen changes from standby to a close up of Batman's face and I straighten up. I think.. is that a aircraft canopy? Is he on the phone while flying a plane? That doesn't sound like a good idea.

"A massive ice storm has paralysed North America from coast to coast." Wonder if that includes Canada and Mexico? "Satellite imagery has detected five flying.. 'Ice Fortresses', source unknown-" A holographic image of one appears at chest height just in front of the main screen. The shape is roughly cylindrical, broader than it is tall. There's what looks like a command centre on the top in the centre and through ten large vents around the rim and on the base... Well, I assume it's supposed to be cold air or something, but on the hologram it just looks like blue light. Why isn't there a scale on the image? Oh, thank you ring. About eighty metres across then. That must be _very_ cold air if it's having this sort of effect. "-which seem to be responsible and must be stopped."

"Could the Watchtower just blow them out of the sky or something?" Wallace doesn't seem impressed.

Zatanna frowns. "What's a 'watch.. tower'?"

I resist the urge to facepalm as Batman sighs. "The League's orbiting headquarters is **not weaponized**. And with both of the League's Green Lanterns off-world-" He's calling in Guy? Don't fuck this up, man. "-I need all hands on deck."

Robin grins. "Does that mean what I think it means?" He takes a step forwards. "The League and the team fighting side by side?" Mmmm... Unless those Fortresses are entirely manually controlled I'm fairly sure that Guy and I could seize one each. On the other hand learning how to work together as a larger group could be invaluable in the future. Given what Tornado was saying I'm going to assume that most of my team mates are eventually going to get 'upped' to the League. For me, I'm not sure. Jordan and Stewart attend meetings about as often as Kosh Naranek attended Babylon 5 Council meetings. I'm not sure I'd want to commit to something if I wasn't sure that I could actually be there enough for it to mean something.

"**Whow**, really?" Wallace makes a small air punching gesture with both fists. He likes the idea, then. I suppose I've had a lot less time fighting beside Diana than the rest have with... Um. Well, not Zatanna, though she said that her father's been teaching her for two years. And I think Kon's only been out in the field with Diana as often as I have. And I'm not sure about M'gann... Well, _some_ of the team, anyway.

"Orange Lantern, transfer Robin, Superboy and Aqualad to Ice Fortress One before meeting up with Lantern Gardner at Ice Fortress Two." _Really_ don't fuck this up Guy. "Miss Martian, Artemis and Zatanna, take the bioship and rendezvous with Green Arrow, Black Canary and Martian Manhunter at Ice Fortress Three." Good job we _finally_ got around to arming the bioship. "Other Leaguers will deal with Fortresses Four and Five. Sending all coordinates now." They're in the database and the ring has them. Two looks like it's directly over Denver. Can't risk it crashing. "Cornwall Boy."

"Yessir?"

"I realise that you haven't had time yet to train with the team. Do you believe yourself to be ready for a mission?"

Robert stands there for a moment. Then he nods. "Yessir."

"Very well. Join the attack on Ice Fortress Three. Ms Reilly, will you be joining us?"

I look back and see her nod. "If you have a use for me."

"Can you fly fast enough to reach Fortress Five within two hours?"

I create a construct map with the locations of the Fortresses marked by numbered Fortresses. She thinks for a moment. "That should be possible, though I have not tested the belt in weather conditions like these." Her skin might look and even feel Human, but it's a good deal stronger and she's perfectly capable of keeping herself warm on the journey. Having the zeta network non-functional really slows things down.

"Red Tornado is headed in that direction. When you arrive, join in the attack." She watches the screen for a moment longer and then turns and heads for the exit.

Wallace looks down the line and then steps forwards. Oh, right, his name wasn't mentioned. "Ah, Batman? I think.. you.. skipped-"

"Kid Flash. A young girl in Seattle is in desperate need of a heart transplant. With all conventional air traffic grounded by the storm, you'll need to pick up the donor heart in Boston and run it three thousand miles across country."

Wallace looks crushed. Wait a second... Wouldn't it make more sense for the Flash to do that? It wouldn't be safe for the Flash to attack a Fortress on his own even if he could get up to reach it and he's far faster than Wallace. Or I could do it. Blink.. blink. It's not as if the snow interferes with Lantern FTL. Or Guy. Actually, Guy would be better. I'll say som-

Wallace spreads his arms wide in a gesture of supplication. "Who is this girl!?"

Batman's eyes narrow. Not a good way to ask, Wallace. "Does it matter?"

Wallace slumps a little. "... No_o_... Of course no_o_t. But can't we zeta-"

Robin looks at him. "Zeta tubes are off-line. Sorry."

"Sir, wouldn't the Flash, Lantern Gardner or I be better choices? We're all faster than Kid Flash." He looks at me and slumps a little more. "Um, sorry."

"The attack on Fortress One starts in a few minutes. I'm concerned that once whoever's controlling them realises that they are under attack they might ditch them in order to escape. We cannot have Fortress Two crash landing on Denver. You and Lantern Gardner should be able to prevent that, and Flash is the only other Leaguer who can reach Fortress One in time."

I lower my head. He's right. _Really_ need that alternate fast travel system.

"Right." He gives Batman an obviously fake smile. "Then how can I say no?" He bows his head. "Guess.. I won't be needing stealth." He taps the insignia on his chest and his uniform returns to its usual yellow and red. "When you _really_ need the **fourth fastest** guy you've got, I'm your guy."

Ooh, ouch. Guess I shouldn't tell him that Superman's point to point speed is probably faster as well. And possibly Marvel's...

"Any questions?"

"Sir, is it desirable to take the Fortresses intact? I was planning to start reglaciating the poles myself, but these would make it much easier." And involve less boring flying over the ice. When I get bored jobs take _so_ long.

"Capturing the Fortresses would also make it easier to investigate their point of origin, but don't put either yourselves or the people you're protecting at unnecessary risk to do it."

Robin grins. "Bonus points."

"If there's nothing else?" No one says anything. "Dismissed."

**11th November  
16:31 GMT -4**

M'gann and Zatanna peel away from the line up and head in the direction of the lift. Artemis starts to go with them, realises that Robert hasn't moved, grabs him by the cape-

"Hey!"

-and pulls him after them. "Teekl, go with them." I look at her retreating tail. "Oh, you already have. Good guess. Fatty, with me!"

Wallace watches them go and then turns his gaze on the rest of us. "This totally sucks."

Kaldur steps towards him. "I realise that you are disappointed not to be fighting alongside your mentor. Try to look on the bright side; each of _us_ will be fighting as one amongst many, our individual performances contributing only a small amount towards the final goal. You will be the only person this child is relying on to save her."

"I.. guess."

Ring, show me Ice Fortress One. Ah. High in the sky, middle of nowhere. I suppose it just happened to be close to wherever Batman happened to be at the time. I'm not seeing any obvious point defences. Hold position at two miles and wait for the go signal? Oh, wait.

"Everyone got their flight belts, right? It's a long way to fall." Nods from everyone except Kaldur and Wallace, who hasn't touched his since that first session. I follow the group as we walk in the direction of the main entrance.

Robin looks at me. "Were you serious about repairing the polar ice caps?"

"Yes. I mean, after cleaning up the oceans and clearing near Earth space of debris it seemed like the next logical thing to do. I could have gone for worldwide nuclear disarmament but it seemed to me that people might object to me looting their silos." He blinks. "Um, that was a joke. I mean, I probably _could_ turn all the plutonium to lead or something, but I wouldn't actually..." Though, now I think about it...

"Computer. Open." Wallace moved out ahead, though at regular speed rather than superspeed. I doubt that a few seconds will make much difference. His voice sounds remarkably lifeless. I wonder what running all that way would be like? And the heart... I remember in Batman: Sub Zero, where Doctor Fries' wife receives a transplant after he tried and failed at stealing Barbra Gordon's organs for her. I don't think that the audience were supposed to dwell on the fact that that meant that someone else had died in the meantime, having volunteered to have their organs removed post mortem. I used to have a donor card myself but I haven't tried adding myself to a register here. Quite aside from the fact that I don't legally exist I have no idea if my altered spiritual presence makes me incompatible with the locals or not. I also know that no one here would be able to tell me reliably enough for me to want to risk it. I dodged blood doning for much the same reason. Between me and the two aliens the locals must think there's a secret Jehovah's Witness coven around here somewhere.

There's a gust of cold air as the mountain door lowers. Note to self; see about getting a less noticeable door installed. I know we're a good long way away from Happy Harbour proper -which still hasn't repainted the signs- but people _do_ still come up here, anti-trespass laws be damned. I _did_ float the idea of non-lethal... Of _low lethality_ booby traps, but it got turned down in no uncertain terms. Well, door's open, time to go.

Orange lines connect me to my team mates and Wallace starts running. "Prepare for transition in three.. two.. one." Snow surrounds us as we hover in the sky above and to the south east of Ice Fortress One. I put a platform under us and then release everyone. "No one lose anything?"

"Food?"

"Anyone else?"

Kaldur shakes his helmeted head. "We are all fine."

The wind isn't all that strong where we are, though from the look of those ice vents and the snow and clouds there's some pretty strong winds below us. Ring, detailed scan of the Fortress. Uuuh, I'm getting so fucking tired of scry wards. Fortunately they seem to be focused around what I assume is the command tower. I can detect the freeze ray projectors easily enough. Only a few of them, and they're all on the upper surface of the main ring.

Kon looks around. "When's Batman getting here?"

Robin raises his binoculars. "The Batplane's a bit slower than a power ring, Superboy."

"And probably doesn't have ring-proof stealth. Ring-"

"Actually, it kinda does." Et tu, Bruce? "Batman had Zatara-"

"Bah! If Under Siege Two taught me anything, it's that there's more than one way to detect a stealth plane. Ring, we're looking for a plane-" There's a rush of displaced air as a black jet aircraft shoots over our heads. I get a shield-dome up just in time to stop us getting blown away. "-just like that one." The ring adds a target reticle to the dome shield, tracking the plane. "Very funny." I lift the ring to my ear. "Orange Lantern to Batman, should we deploy?"

"Point defences?"

"Transmitting scans."

Two missiles shoots away from the plane, striking the gun emplacements on the near side. A small black shape glides after them and lands in a crouch. "Landing area clear."

The air flickers and we're standing next to him. No immediate attack but whoever's inside must know they got hit. I nod to Kaldur. "See you back at the cave. Ring, Ice Fortress Two." Another flicker and I see-

"Hey Orange, what kept you?" Guy's face floats above my ring. I peer through the snowfall, just managing to make out the glow of Guy's construct-armour. "An' who's your friend?"

"Friend?"

I close my eyes for a moment, then transition to Guy's position. Strictly speaking there's no advantage to us being close to each other but it makes it psychologically easier. "My latest Construct-Lantern. He used to be a Praexis Demon. I call him Fatty. And how he learned FTL transition before Teekl I'll never know."

"O..kay..." Guy and Fatty stare at each other for a moment but Fatty's too vacant to intimidate. Guy shakes his head and returns his attention to the Fortress. "So what's say the three of us bust this sucker open, huh?"

"Any Lantern could bust it open. I want to capture it intact. Then I want you to go somewhere Leaguers will see it and repeat the process."

He face shrugs. "Not exactly publicity-shy, but what's the big deal?"

"The League's recruiting. I want you to get in. Best way to do that-"

"Is for them to see me do somethin' clever." He nods. "That thing's too heavy fer those vents to be keepin' it up."

"Anti-gravity system?"

"Probably. Whoever's in charge'll be in the tower, along with the control systems."

"Isn't that a bit obvious?"

"Eh, probably more worried about ground to air missiles than us. Think you can hold the whole thing up on your lonesome?"

"Have you ever bonded with an Embodiment?"

He grins at me. "Arc of fire on those guns, don't reckon they can hit us if we come in from the top."

"You cut through to the inside while I try and patch into the controls?"

"Sounds like a plan to me." An idea strikes and he looks away from the Fortress and at me. "Hey, how'd you think the League guys who can't fly r'even gunna get up to these Fortresses?"

Um? "No idea, actually."

**11th November  
13:36 GMT -7**

Guy's large circular saw constructs hits the side of the command tower at the same time as my much smaller drill. The six upper segments of the tower are basically huge radiator grilles. The temperature up here is staggering, and without either rings or supernatural fortitude trying to take this route inwards would be a very bad idea. I've no idea what they're made of that they're not glowing red or on fire. Even with my scans blocked I could try taking a piece, but I don't want to risk breaking the thing. And hey, if we capture the Fortress I'll have all the time I want to dissect it.

I've set the ring to notify me if the Fortress starts to fall. If it actually _is_ using a gravity manipulation device -and wouldn't _that_ be a find- I won't necessarily feel it if we start heading towards the city below. Don't want to get carried away and get thousands of people killed because I got fixated on the secondary objective. I sent Fatty to draw fire from the freeze ray cannon emplacements. They can't really hit us up here but I want whoever's inside to think that this is actually a fight for long enough for us to grab them. Fatty hasn't got the hang of phasing but _has_ worked out that a weapon designed to impair molecular vibrations doesn't work too well on a thing that isn't made of molecules.

I may not be able to scan the inside from the outside but I should be able to worm a construct around inside until I find something. Harder going than I thought it would be. I've practised cutting through steel and titanium, but this is.. no. Focus. If I don't get this done I'm going to have to spend ages at the poles. And Denver will get flattened. I've never been to Denver before, but I'd really want to avoid pointless destruction whatever the location.

"Orange, I've got the hatch! What's takin' you so long?"

And I'd quite like to beat Guy... There!

"I've got access! I've got... Ah."

"Got what? _Booof_!" Guy shoots backwards out of the hatch, the head and shoulders of his construct armour caked in inch-thick ice. He steadies himself for a moment, then the ice glows green and explodes off him.

"Local internal monitoring and automated defences. I've registered the hatch alarm as a malfunction and told the monitoring that nothing's happening but it isn't connected to anything else. Whoever made this actually had the sense not to run everything through a single central computer."

"Whaw. Step up from the _normal_ crazies."

"Not too far up, that entrance still connects to the rest of the superstructure."

"I'm goin', I'm goin'."

He disappears back down the hatch. I rewrite a few memory sectors to make sure we don't get shot in the back and then follow him in, using the severed hatch to plug the hole and repairing the join. The inside reminds me a little of a submarine. Once you get past the internal airlock... Which means this could have been built off-planet. _Ugh_. Anyway, the corridor appears to have been built with modular components, mostly conventional steel rather than whatever the external armour is made of. And I can scan.. some of it. _Most_ of the internal structure. Not what I assume to be the command centre and not the machine doing the freezing, but I can get the rest. Ring, transmit this to the team and the League.

Compliance.

Guy's already at work on the first internal bulkhead, a fine green beam slicing into the doorframe. I can't see a manual mechanism and the surround is made of the same stuff as the external armour. This time I don't bother with it. I already know that I can cut through the steel to get at the circuitry on the other side so I fire off a cutting beam of my own. "So, why do you suppose this is happening?"

"What'd'ya mean?"

"No demands have been issued, so no one's trying to hold the country to ransom. It's not an alien invasion because there's no troops or resource extractions. No one's gone on television to declare themselves the 'god of snow'..." I penetrate the steel and start feeling around for the next section. Another armoured wall. Cutting...

"Heh. Those one's are always fun."

"Right, ego trip, but no one's doing it."

"So, what, a distraction? I mean, these thing 'ave gotta _cost_.. pwww, more than _I_ make in a year."

"Yes, but not just the cost. Getting _access_ to technology this advanced on Earth wouldn't be easy. I'm just thinking.. if it were _me_... The only thing that really justifies however many millions of dollars these things cost to build... Do you think you could shield yourself from a nuclear blast?" Guy stops cutting. I'm through, now I send out multiple filaments to try and find a wire linked to the controls. "I mean, one from a reasonably modern ex-Soviet bomb or something. It's not a secret that most of the League's American. Lure everyone into a small area around it, watch the news footage until you're sure the whole League are in place and then _**boom**_."

He starts cutting again, the glow noticeably brighter. "Anyone ever tell you you've got a nasty imagination?"

"Makes sense though, doesn't it? Doorway security compromised, internal defences to safe. No one on the other side again."

"Yeah. Wish it didn't. 'Cause if a bomb like that goes off over Denver..."

"Yep. Want a hand with that?"

"Nah." The door comes free of its frame and he moves it aside. "I got it." He steps through the doorway. "What I'm worryin' about is why there aren't any guards."

"And what would, say, thirty guards do against us?"

Guy leads the way at a jog towards the next door. "Warn tha' guys who could _actually_ stop us."

"Who, Lenny McDoesn'texist?"

"Hey, don't get _too_ cocky. We couldn't scan through this thing's armor and we _still_ can't scan some bits. How do we know it's not crawlin' with guys?"

"I'm still monitoring the sections we've passed through with filaments. I can watch the outside through Fatty's eyes and Batman's attack by their mission cameras. All anyone's seen so far are automated defences."

"Ah. Yeah, okay, sounds like you've got it covered."

We jog down the corridor, heading towards where the command centre appears to be. While we _could_ use FTL it would only really shave a few seconds off our time and harm our reactions if there really _was_ a stealthed enemy at the emergence point, and that's leaving aside the horror stories Guy's taken pleasure telling me about counter-FTL techniques and what happens to Lanterns who don't spot them in time. Temperature's heating up a bit here. We're directly under one of the radiators so whatever physics breaking thing they're using to make the heat exchange work is running through the walls around us. Even if the League destroy the other four, they _have_ to try to salvage the power system. I can barely begin to imagine how much power-

Approximately three hundred million kilowatt hours per minute of peak operation.

-this place... Oh. I'm not actually sure what that equates to, but it sounds like a-.

Guy is blasted back against the wall opposite the corner he just turned and is swiftly encased in ice. His armour is still whole and I see him roll his eyes at me. Green sword blades spin around on all sides and with a lump of ice acting as a shield he charges forwards again. "Thought you said you turned alla' these off!"

"That one's on an independent system. Hang on a moment and I'll-"

I hear a muffled explosion. "Don't worry, I got it."

**11th November  
13:40 GMT -7**

Well, they certainly know we're here now. No sense messing about. Guy goes for the heavily reinforced door with a green cutting beam as I pop out three particle beam projector turrets. Overpenetration _might_ be a problem but I doubt it would be a worse risk than dropping this thing on Denver. A flurry of purple beams later and Guy pushes the burned-through door into the room beyond with a green blast wave. He swoops after it as I dismiss the projectors and takes up station over the centre of the room as I sweep my eyes over it from the doorway.

Three other reinforced doors at the other cardinal points. A slightly sunken circular area with Star Trek bridge looking chairs arranged in a circle around a central command chair. Each chair has holographic display/control system, probably of individual systems. Over to my right I see a spiral staircase down to what the ring says is a kitchen area. On my left another goes up to some bunk beds. No one's here? I'm certainly not seeing any _bombs_...

Guy hovers over the command chair, green light strobing across the room from his body. He remembered!

"You bin holding out on me, Orange?"

"About what?"

"That purple beam thing."

"I never said I _didn't_ have a particle beam projector construct. And it drains the ring more than it's worth most of the time." I send filaments from my right hand to each of the consoles. "Turrets deactivating, freezing systems-" Are protected, but I have a power ring. "-deactivated. Anti gravity generator stable. Thank you mystery supervillain who really _should_ have found a more productive use for their abilities, I won't waste your wonderful bounty."

Guy looks disappointed. "That it?"

"Looks like. Oh, hang on, looks like there's a scuttling charge on the power plant."

"I'll get down-"

"Don't worry, a turret had line of sight. I've frozen it. Um, ring, transmit full schematics to Lantern Gardner."

"Compliance."

"Data file received."

Huh. I have _no_ idea whose voice Guy's ring uses.

"Uh.. thanks?"

"Now _you_ send it to the League. Actually-" Quick scan of the place. The main freeze generator is directly below us and not shielded from this position. Once we've taken care of this I'll have _another_ scry blocking design to show John. This makes.. what, five now? Yep. "-get lost. I can handle this place by myself."

"You sure?"

"Well, check with Batman, but I've got full control of this place. I can land it or stick it over the North Pole or whatever."

"Mh. Guess I _am_ supposed to be in charge."

"How are you supposed to be in charge?"

"Got a few years seniority on you."

"Different Corps. That's like an Air Force officer giving orders to an Army officer. Besides, I'm affiliated with the Justice League and you're not."

"Not yet, maybe."

"Not never unless you go and do something impressive in front of Batman."

"Fine, fine." He lands and strolls out of the door we came in by. "Lantern Gardner to Batman, Fortress Two secure. Orange's gunna stay here and look after it. Where'd you want me?"

I transition to the command chair. Nice set up. Whoever's in charge can rotate and address their subordinates as well as seeing what they're doing through the back of their holoscreen. Any crew listed? No. Alright then, ring, scan for genetic material.

Hair and skin cells detected from one hundred thirty seven Humans and nine Cows.

Cows?

Seat cushions covered with preserved cow skin.

Real leather seats? I press it with my right index finger, thinning my construct armour to feel the texture. Nice. Anyone I know?

No matches found for either Humans or Cows.

That would have made things too easy, I suppose. Okay, doesn't seem to be a practical way to clear the sky with the heat from the radiators and I wouldn't want to risk compounding everyone's misery by flooding the place. The fortress isn't able to move particularly fast but I set course for the North Pole anyway. After a few seconds' analysis the ring manages to understand the broken door's composition well enough to repair it. Loss of heat shouldn't be a problem for as long as the radiators remain hot but I don't feel like having an arctic draft. Hmm. For what I want this thing to do the cold air system isn't really what I need. Giant cold guns would be better but that would require the system getting reconfigured. Is Batman going to want to look over everything personally? Of course he is.

Now that the computers are dancing to my tune I should probably do a manual inspection. Those scuttling charges need to go for a start. Just.. just to be sure, I send filaments throughout the Fortress, accessing door controls to open them as they spread. No, there's really no one else here.

I don't get it.

I'll get Mister Zat- Oh. No, I won't. I'll get John or Kaldur to go over this place, see if it's been exposed to magic of some sort. Ring? Residual zeta radiation?

None found.

Anything that looks like a Dolmen Gate?

None found.

I get up and start walking in the direction of the main power plant. This thing was clearly designed for a crew, a _humanoid_crew. Ring, is this thing spaceworthy?

Ice Fortress is capable of space flight.

FTL?

No FTL travel mechanism detected.

Any stealth systems?

No stealth systems detected.

Cow leather, so the seats weren't made by aliens. I shake my head. What could anyone possibly get out of doing something like this that they couldn't just buy with all the money it cost them to build it? And _five_ of them? I shake my head again. Oh well. What was the line? Stories have to make sense but real life doesn't? A flying building that's clearly designed to have a crew doesn't have one. That's a massive expenditure of resources. They can't... Could there be some easy way to build massive structures like this that I don't know about? A power ring _could_ do it eventually. Some sort of refitted alien surplus? Steel is pretty much steel, right? But the ring didn't detect alien DNA... Ring, scan for DNA equivalent molecules?

Subject undefined.

Fair enough. I have asked, but Guy told me that the Greenies aren't allowed to share their databases with me. I understand where they're coming from and at least the Guardians aren't keeping the exclusion zone up anymore. I haven't mentioned the Corpse to him and if they haven't visited yet I'm going to assume that I'm in the clear.

One more reinforced door and I'm in what appears to be the main generator room. Huh. The generator appears to be a metal hoop surrounded by a corona of cables in a larger hoop-shaped frame. One end of each of the cables is attached to the inner hoop and the other trails outwards then down around the outer rim of the outer hoop before drooping down to the floor. A pool of treacly blackness spans the interior of the inner hoop. I peer at it then shine an orange light at it. No reflectivity at all.

Ring, what is that?

Unable to identify.

And then the black circle flickers and dies and the floor drops out beneath me.

**11th November  
13:46 GMT -7**

RingPowerItPowerItPowerIt!

Orange filaments connect the ring to each of the cables as the Fortress continues to fall through the air. I'm half way to the ceiling and I've got maybe twenty seconds to get power to the anti-gravity system before I flatten Denver. My only alternative is dead lifting the thing with a construct and I've got no idea at all if I can do that. The biggest thing I've tried holding up was a ten tonne construct Guy was using to train me. I _managed_ it, but this weighs a bit more than ten tonnes.

The floor rises slowly beneath me. Ring? Am I matching velocities or is the anti-gravity actually back on?

Power flow sufficient for anti-gravity operation. Warning, ring charge to electron flow conversion at rate required will deplete ring in seven minutes.

I use my connection to the navigation systems to change course from North Pole to 'away from civilisation'. I _think_. I'm not going to be very popular with the Arapaho Forestry Commission but at least the chance of me squashing anyone is minimised. I need to understand what just happened. Ring, analyse the hoop. How was it generating power?

Unable to assess. No component of the structure indicated has significant power generation capabilities.

What? So what was the black circle thing?

No similar phenomena on record. However, it is the most likely source of power.

Thank you, captain obvious. Okay, pool of light generating power. The hoop couldn't be sustaining that itself. So, coming from somewhere else? Relaying power like a wormhole or something? There was no signal from this side, I'm in complete control of every computer system I can find and I'm aware of all radiation in the area around the hoop. So if there was no signal...

I look around and strengthen my armour construct. No, stupid, Guy's making me paranoid. All they'd have to do is look up-. No, just look on the news, they're bound to be reporting on the fact that the snow blowers have stopped. With no way to know what I'm looking for I can't take the time away from this to look for the power source and try to reconnect. Getting a replacement power source or my lantern is out for similar reasons.

Guy!

I hold the ring out in front of me. "Orange two eight one four to green two eight one four B."

There's a slight delay, then a small image of Guy sitting leaned back on a command chair like the one on this Fortress' bridge, his hands behind his head. "'Sup Orange. Fortress One's under control, thanks to yours truly."

"Have you turned the ice blower off?"

He waves his right hand "Yeah, first thing I did. And froze the scuttlin' charges. Bats is goin' over the place now."

Fiddlesticks. "Guy, get everyone out."

He frowns. "Whaat? Why? Thought you wan'ed-"

"The Fortress doesn't power itself. The generator is more of a relay and it can be deactivated remotely. I'm having to hold this Fortress up by my own power, and if the jets are off-"

The image blurs as he throws himself from the chair towards the exit. "Then anyone with a telescope'll know we've busted their toy. Bats, we need to vamoose! You need help over there?"

"Unless you've got someone strong as Superman, fast as the Flash and able to fly, don't worry. I'm pretty sure I can avoid landing on..." Oh, hang on. "Guy, what's the largest object a Lantern can do an FTL transfer with?"

"I don't actually think there's a lim- You gonna try n'move the Fortress?"

"I **really** want to keep this."

"Well good lu- Whoow!" He jerks in the corridor. "Okay, we just lost engines." He flies through another door, pushes Batman aside and levels his ring at the hoop. "Sorry Orange, I need to concentrate."

"I'll leave you to it. Off." Of course, _he_ can just take his lantern out of subspace when he runs out of power. Ring, calculate distance to the nearest coast.

North Pacific coastline is approximately fifteen hundred kilometres due west.

I don't suppose there's any chance this thing will float, is there?

A cut away image of the Fortress appears in my head.

Probability minimal. Quite aside from high density and poorly buoyant shape the structure is not air tight. Vents designed to allow sub zero air to blow outwards would swiftly let in enough water to fill the lower corridors, increasing the weight further.

An animated sequence in my head shows the Fortress landing on the sea and sinking slowly before getting faster and faster as the water level inside increases. I suppose I could just drop it somewhere shallow like in DearS.. but if I did _that_ I doubt I'd ever be able to make it go anywhere. If it was going to sink the forest would be the better choice... Ice. Frozen water floats on liquid water. This machine basically makes ice... Ring, remaining charge?

Eighty one percent remaining.

How much of that would an FTL transfer to the sea shore take?

Variable. Intensity of-

Avarice, avarice, yeah. Freezing seawater is a pain, the volume combined with convection currents... Ring, is there a significant difference in energy consumption between an FTL transfer to the North Pacific and one to the Arctic Circle?

No.

Alright. If I transfer to the Arctic Circle and turn the ice maker up to maximum, can I freeze enough water to support the Fortress?

Variable. Intensity of-

Stop. Plot course. Turn the ice machines on. Tell me when I get avaricious enough.

Compliance.

Used to be that I'd come up with a list of practical reasons why this was a good idea. Not this time. Between the Ophidian and the oath I've learned something.. a lot of things, about avarice. This Fortress isn't mine because a piece of paper somewhere lists me as owner or because I have the strength to see off challengers. It's mine because it must be mine. I require it to be mine. The alternative isn't just unwelcome, it's unthinkable. I am my wants. I am this Fortress. I am reglaciation. I am environmental restoration. I am the world and all the-

Necessary avarice achieved.

-people in it. All me. All mine. My designs are what the future **will conform to**.

"This is my cause."

The Fortress begins to glow orange.

"This is my fight."

I see the splash down zone.

"Shine through the void with orange light!"

A momentary disorientation.

Destination reached.

"I've claimed all within my sight."

_**BA**__**BUM.**_

An orange frame appears around the outside of the Fortress, additional cold gun constructs appearing and targeting the sea as the Fortress falls towards splashdown. The sea beneath starts to ice up but I need more!

"To keep what is mine, that is my right."

The frame drops, pushing itself under the water. I feel the cold guns firing at full power and a column of ice begins rising from the water. Larger base area.

_**BA**__**BUM.**_

The Fortress splashes down but I bring us in soft and anchor myself relative to the room around me. Immediately I refocus the cold guns on the water touching the Fortress and cut the flow of freezing air from the vents. We're sinking, but the holes are frozen over and the ice is resisting, buoying the Fortress up. Too close, I need more ice. More more mo-

Charge depleted.

The ring goes out and a moment later the Fortress shudders as the remaining support provided by the anti-gravity generator disappears. Fingers crossed then. Ooh, suddenly quite cold. Should probably head back up to the bridge.. no, won't be any power there either. I start walking towards the top of the main body of the Fortress. If this sinks I'm kind of doomed. I don't think.. I mean, the last image the ring showed me seemed to suggest that I'd made enough-

Fatty floats around the corner. "Food?"

"No, there's no..." Hang on a minute. "Fatty, you can eat heat, right?" He nods enthusiastically. "Would you be so good as to fly outside and suck heat out of the water around the Fortress."

"Food?"

"Do it, and when we get back to land I'll buy you whatever food you want."

**Mirage**

**13th November  
09:06 GMT -4**

There's a soft thump as Alan puts another stack of battered looking journals down on the table. "I think that's the lot of them. Since Kent.. urm.. passed on, I haven't really got around to organising it all yet."

Zatanna pushes her current volume aside, stands and leans over the table to check the front piece and opening pages. Most of them have turned out to have dates written somewhere reasonably accessible but the dates on individual entries generally don't have the years written on them and we're not quite sure about the order of some of the volumes. "Thanks Mister Scott. Sorry about taking over your dining room like this."

"That's quite alright Zatanna. And please, call me Alan."

"Thanks! Okay, um, this one starts in nineteen twenty seven..." She picks it up and moves it into the appropriate pile. "Nineteen twenty n_i_ne aaand..." She sags slightly. "Forty two."

Kent got the Helmet of Fate somewhere between thirty nine and forty one, and either he happened not to keep a journal during that period.. or something happened to it. I suppose it might have got left in Kahndaq when he returned to the states or.. got destroyed in one of the many fights he was involved in afterwards. Nabu might even have destroyed it himself. Alan thinks for a moment. "Well, it might just have got mixed in with some of his other books. They're not really in any order. Howsabout you and Paul make a start on these and I'll have a rummage around up in the attic, see what I can come up with?"

Zatanna nods, already leafing through the forty two journal. "That would be really helpful."

Alan turns to leave then pauses, looking at Zatanna with a small frown. Dismissing whatever idea struck him with a small shake of his head he then continues out of the room.

I turn another page of the nineteen forty six edition. I understand why he warded the books but it has meant that I can't just scan the whole thing in one go. Plus, I'm not.. Zatanna has a much better idea of what's relevant than I do. She's already read the bit with the fight with Mordru in sixty nine, but that wasn't the only time they ran into each other and Kent didn't bother putting down an explanation of what Mordru was. _That_ might be in the journal explaining their first encounter, or it could be in a different sort of book entirely. Did he write books for magic instruction?

Another page. Nabu had the gall to show up at one of the Ice Fortresses, though thankfully not the one Zatanna was fighting at. I've already watched the recording of his actions and he didn't use any abilities I haven't seen before. My own Fortress is still on its custom built iceberg waiting for me to find a power source big enough to get it back into the air. I'm tempted to try asking the Ophidian to guide me in plugging my personal lantern into it but I don't want to have to explain that one to Diana. Guy managed to bring Fortress One down more or less safely. The bottom couple of levels got turned into a crumple zone but it _could_ be repaired. The other three attacks went less well. No one on our team was hurt but the three Fortresses are all smouldering wrecks and Fortress Five crashed inside Central City. The area below had been evacuated but the property damage was extensive.

Guy ended up giving me a lift back to the mountain after the Fortresses were all dealt with. Good job too: no power meant no communications or heating. Much longer and I'd have had to risk getting a ride on Fatty or trying to persuade Teekl to pass on a message. I asked Batman but he told me that the League doesn't have any power sources that could be used to power the Fortresses. He didn't have a problem with me keeping the one I've got -as long as I don't let it sink- so I'll just have to add that to the list of things to do after I leave Earth. STAR Labs people are already all over Fortress One and the others are going to get a quick League inspection before being dismantled by the local version of Damage Control.

Another page turned. Nineteen forty six was not a helpful year. Kent stopped using Nabu in nineteen forty five at the urging of his wife, and cut back on his 'superhero hours' a great deal as well. This journal's mostly about his professional life as a teacher and archaeologist. Interesting stuff I'm sure but not a lot of good to us. Need to go through it all though, just in case. Actually... "Zatanna, what was it Batman wanted to talk to you about yesterday?"

She flinches. Why would she..? I reach across the corner of the table and put my right hand on her right shoulder. A moment of tension and then she relaxes slightly. "He.. wanted to talk to me about..." She keeps looking at the journal but reaches across her chest to put her left hand on mine. "He's listed in Dad's will as the person who becomes my legal guardian in the event of Dad's death. I mean, Dad's family all live in Italy and I.. _barely_ speak Italian."

"So he offered to take you in?" A shallow nod. I frown. "But Mister Zatara's not dead."

Her head turns slightly towards me and she meets my eyes for a moment. "That's what I said. He... He said that the League's going to try to help Dad but he's got no idea if it's even possible." She exhales sharply through her nose. "I knew Dad and Batman were close, but I don't even know who he is."

"Really? He didn't tell you?"

She shakes her head. "Secret identities don't stay secret if you keep sharing them. Obviously he _would_ tell me if I'd.. said _yes_."

"It was condi-?" I blink then wave my left hand, filling the room with orange light to prevent eavesdropping. Then I take two sound ward stones out of subspace and pass one to her.

"What?" She picks it up with her right hand.

"Bruce Wayne. Batman's real name is Bruce Wayne."

Her eyes widen in surprise for a second, then she nods. "That.. makes sense. I'd wondered how my dad knew a billionaire industrialist. So, that means that Robin's..?"

"Richard Grayson, yes."

"You.. weren't supposed to tell me that, were you?"

"Probably not, but _he_ should have. If he was asking you _that_... "

"He was just trying to help."

I 'mmm' noncommittally. If Batman thought that freeing Mister Zatara was _that_ difficult.. maybe not even **possible**.. then he shouldn't have taken 'no' for an answer. Tempting as the idea might sound to some of her contemporaries leaving fourteen year olds to their own devices isn't a good idea. Maybe he just wanted to leave it for a bit? I turn another page and turn off the orange light as I hear Alan come back down the stairs.

He walks in with a broader but thinner book. "Nothing too exciting, but I remembered Kent putting this together as a guide for the rest of us for if we ran into something magical. There's a bit on Mordru in there." He puts in down next to Zatanna's current book. "Look, I was watching the news when you and the League took on those fortresses. I know there's a new Doctor Fate. I'll understand if you've been told not to tell anyone but I'd sort of like to know who it is." Alan frowns slightly as he looks first at Zatanna then at me. "Shouldn't he be reading all this so he knows what he's letting himself in for?"

Zatanna looks at me. "It's up to you, but I think we should tell him."

She nods, then looks at Alan. "It's... It's my dad."

Alan's frown deepens. "I though he wasn't interested in it? That's what Kent said he said... Was that why he's taking a leave of absence? To.. get used to it?"

Ah yes, the Justice League press release. I'm not.. _sure_ why they decided to cover up what really happened to Mister Zatara. Diana said that working out how to play that issue was why they were so slow in releasing information on what happened on Roanoke Island. Zatanna gives me a pleading look.

"He's not taking a leave of absence. Nabu's taken him and isn't giving him back."

Alan recoils. "What? No!" He looks at Zatanna and her mask fades slightly. The emotion in her face is enough to convince him. "Wh-? Are you telling me Diana was a party to the Justice League lying to the world? She'd never do that. She can't stand lying."

"If Mister Zatara was taking a leave of absence don't you think that _he'd_ be the one making the announcement?" His eyes drop. He doesn't doubt me but it's a big idea to get your head around. "I don't think Diana was happy about it but she didn't write or read out the press release."

"Even so, Fate isn't-"

"Alan, I was there when it happened." I look at Zatanna. "And so was Zatanna. We're reading up on Nabu to try and work out how to get rid of him."

Alan shakes his head in disbelief. "I just.. can't believe that bastard -oh, pardon me, miss- would do something like that. I remember when Kent stopped wearing him, why he said he.. did it. I just... And the League knows about this?" Zatanna looks up and him and nods. "Well I... Zatanna, I'm **so** sorry. I'll... I'll just make a start on this pile, shall I? I'll let you know if I find anything."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

Alternative.

**13th November**  
**20:48 GMT -5**

I follow Jade down an alleyway on the outskirts of Chiclayo. As per our agreement I've left the ring and Father Box behind in my hotel room. **My** hotel room. Feels wrong even to think it. "Jade, if you don't tell me what it is I've done wrong I can't possibly apologise for it." My night vision's far superior to a normal Human's but I can't read facial expression beneath a mask when the face is pointing away from me. I think she _might_ have just twitched but that might just be how ninjas move. She's wearing her _mask_. With _me_. If I'd realised that she was **that** angry I'd have tried to sort this out sooner.

"You haven't done anything."

!Find out!

Oh, is _that_ how we're doing it. "Jade, you've been annoyed with me since we got back from your grandmother's. I don't know-"

She turns around to have me, face thrust forwards. "Seven! Years!"

Oh. That. "Jade, she _surprised_ me. I **didn't** mean-"

"So, not seven years then? Maybe you meant eight or **nine** years?"

!

"She **surprised** me, alright? We hadn't-" She folds her arms across her chests and turns her head to the side. "-hadn't _talked_ about it. I was just trying to communicate that it wouldn't be in the immediate future. What..? What do you think is a reasonable amount of time? Tell me, and I'll plan with that in mind."

"That's not how it works."

"Well, I'm sorry, but I've never done this before. I've never even seriously considered marriage before. And she asked and you didn't answer and I thought I'd say something to.. break the silence. I.. I didn't mean to-"

She turns her face back a little, her eyes on me. "Were your parents really together for seven years before they got married?"

"Yes, and when I left my home plane they'd been together thirty three years _since_ their marriage. A long courtship doesn't necessarily mean that I'm not interested, I _**am**_. I didn't even mean to suggest it as a.. time.. for _us_. How important is this to you?"

"I don't know." She relaxes a little. Oh, thank goodness. "I've never been in a relationship like this either." I take a slightly uncertain step towards her and she doesn't move away. "_My_ parents got married five months after they first met."

"Without wanting to be flippant about it, look how well they get on _now_. Your father didn't even take the time to write to your mother in prison, let alone _visit_ her." Another step and I'm close enough to reach out to gently pry her hand away from her chest. She shifts position and for a moment I think she's going to move away but instead she lets me pull it to my chest.I run the tips of my fingers over the skin of her hand, delighting in being able to touch her again after.. seventeen days? Too long. Too long. "Trying to be rational about it, I don't think marriage is sensible until we have some sort of resolution on the matter of the Justice League and the League of Shadows. However, if you want, we can throw rationality aside. I'm sure we can find a priest around here somewhere."

"How would you find a priest without your ring?"

"We're in South America. I'll throw a brick."

"They aren't _that_ common."

"I either hit a priest, or I hit someone else and a priest will turn up to give them the last rites."

She turns her mask downwards slightly and gives an amused exhalation. "You're an atheist."

"I'm prepared to tolerate God's interference for a few minutes if it means getting you for a lifetime."

"Oh. _Damn it_." There's a hitch in her voice. Is she.. crying? I strongly dislike not just being able to tell. "I was going to stay angry. I was-. I was-." She lunges forwards and throws her arms around my waist as I pull her closer. I want to bury my face in her hair again but I'm just a little too tall and I don't want to break contact to alter our position. I find myself grinning like a loon as she settles into my embrace. This is how things are supposed to be. "Is this going to keep happening?"

"If we didn't care it wouldn't hurt.. and, we care. A lot. But the more we talk about what we're feeling, what we're thinking, the less it will happen. Oprah said so." She snorts, then pulls back a little to push her right hand up under her mask to wipe her eyes. "You know, you could take your mask off and let me do that."

"No, I'm on a job. The mask stays on." She removes her hand and straightens the mask. "You can take it off me later."

"No, I think I'll leave the mask **on** this time. Haven't tried that before."

"We _have_. That time-"

I shake my head. "That was a blindfold, that's totally different."

She turns away once more but now there's a spring in her step that wasn't there before. And-. Is she _wiggling_ at me?

She leads the way towards wherever our rendezvous point is supposed to be. I did scan the area but to be honest I didn't consider the exact location particularly important. Batman's files are quite clear; if Ra's makes an agreement he'll stick to it. The **letter** of it anyway. There'll probably be a load of Shadows or whatever around -some of them probably with equipment that can actually hurt me- but unless I start something they won't. And just in case? None of the walls around here are strong enough to stop me slamming through them and calling the ring to me. Still a risk but I think I need to do this.

Jade holds up her right hand to stop me, then scurries ahead to check our entry point. Having a homeless person or lost drunk hanging around would be a bit of a nuisance, quite aside from law enforcement. I feel a moment of concern as she goes beyond my visual range but I close my eyes and take a deep breath and let if flow away. Huh, actually **is** helping. I have been presently surprised to discover that this version of Lantern Gardner is a nice enough man.. if you can stand a certain amount of banter. I think I like him, actually. Perhaps I should talk to him at the next session about pooling our ring-related knowledge?

Jade comes back inside my visual range, waving me up. I take a quick look around myself and then head in her direction, taking care not to make excessive noise. We walk up some concrete steps to a loading dock and then enter a warehouse. Conveyor belts, cardboard and various work stations, but the light inside is even worse than outside and I can't see the far walls. I close my eyes and sniff. Myself and Jade aside, seven distinct scents, fresh and Human. I've never smelt Ra's before. If he's **here** then so is Ubu. The rest will most likely be regular Shadows.

Jade stops about fifteen metres into the building and kneels. I come to a halt a couple of metres back. After a moment she looks back at me. "You're supposed to kneel."

"Why? He isn't _my_ master."

"It would be a sign of respect." Hard soled steps on metal. Ra's' voice. I still can't see him but I can see metal stairs going up to the machinery above us. The echo's throwing off my hearing. "Perhaps that is expecting too much from a man such as yourself."

"At this stage, yes, it is. That's rather why I wanted to talk to you about your little murder-cult."

More footsteps, ahead and to the left. I can just about see him in the gloom. "The League of Shadows is far more than a murder-cult."

"So Jade's tried to convince me. She believes and I.. find that I rather dislike the idea that a man of your age and intelligence would set up and maintain such an organisation _purely_ for that purpose. I have to tell you however that your recent activity has not resulted in me being optimistic about that." Yes, it's him, silently walking Ubu by his side. "A giant laser in space? The sour grapes mud-man? I realise that judging a seven hundred year old man by the activity of a few months is unfair but from the reports I've read it would appear indicative of your behaviour during the whole modern era."

"If your opinion of me is so low then why did you ask to meet with me?"

"Hope isn't really my thing, O master of assassins. Buuuut, before I condemn you in my own mind as just another lunatic, I thought I'd give you the chance to tell me what it's all about. I'm not asking for you to let me in on day to day operations, but what's the ideology? What's your _goal_? What is all the killing in aid of? You're clearly an intelligent man, there must be _something_ driving you?" No immediate response. "Isn't there?"

"And if there were, why would I share it with you?"

"Recent events, the whole Roanoke Island business, have led me to doubt the Justice League's modus operandi."

"Why should I believe that?"

"You already know what I did to Mister Crock. You probably know that I did the same thing to Bane." A slight inclination of his head. "And how do you think the Great Ten _really_ got hold of those _nasty_ wizards?" A slow and considered nod. "You're never going to get a better chance than this to turn me. So, talk. What's it all about, really, when you get right down to it?"

RRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Resume.

**15th November  
13:11 GMT -4**

She doesn't look around as I take the stool next to her at the bar.

"Have they seriously not finished the hearings yet?"

Amanda Waller turns her head just slightly towards me. "Oh. It's you." She takes a tiny sip from her whiskey glass before using it to point at the television above the bar. "What do _you_ make of that?"

"Hm?"

"It's hardly a big secret that he was living in the Themysciran embassy. With your sponsor."

It's tuned to GBS and is showing some sort of lively protest march. The caption says 'Live in Kahndaq'. As I watch, the camera turns away from the protestors to a distant figure floating in the air. A moment later it zooms in on Adom's face. He's side on from the film crew and his arms are folded across his chest. His eyes flick briefly in the direction of the camera and then he goes back to watching the people below.

"No, he's doing that on his own. Only good thing to come out of this whole mess if you ask me." Their children disappearing triggered a small protest in Cairo. It was the middle of the night there and it wasn't the government's fault but the additional unrest was enough to trigger a public demonstration. The government attempted to follow through on its repressive instincts and send in the troops only to discover that every single military transport vehicle near the capital had been torn apart. When the expected clamp down didn't come more people joined in and Adom's stock has skyrocketed. "I'm actually a bit impressed with how restrained he's being."

"So what makes Cairo different from Fawcett City?"

I shake my head. "Same power set, different guy. That's Teth Adom, not Black Adam."

"Oh really? So what happened to **him**?"

"**I** did."

This time she turns her head far enough towards me to look at me with both eyes. "That so?"

"I was part of the team that went to Louisiana. But back to my _original_ question..?"

She takes another sip and goes back to watching the television. "I spent six weeks getting chewed out by the Senate Judiciary Committee and roasted in the press. Belle Reve was and **is** sound. To even try to break out they had to tamper with prison uniforms being supplied from outside the prison, make sure _exactly_ the right people were inside _and_ attack our off-site monitoring post. And even with all that, only one person got out and you picked him up immediately. They had _nothing_."

"So how come you're _here_ rather than back at Belle Reve?"

"Report's not been released yet."

I frown. "Is that.. unusually slow?"

She glances at me with raised eyebrows. "What'd _you_ think? Meanwhile I'm dodging every representative and reporter who wants to talk to me about how to stop everyone's children being stolen away again."

"But you don't know anything about.. I mean, no offence or anything, but you designed Belle Reve to hold metahumans and schizo tech users, not magic users."

"**I **_**know**_! Try telling that to a politician in search of a sound bite."

I shuffle uncomfortably on my stool. "Well..."

"Oh yeah. Good work sabotaging Senator Knight's presidential bid. Even made me laugh a little"

Presidential..? "I didn't think the election was for.. two years?"

"Any politician sniffing after the top job needs to start getting their name in the headlines now if they want a run at the Oval Office. Let people know where they stand. All President Horne's people have done is spout platitudes so Knight figured he'd try and grab the spotlight." She takes another sip. "You have anything to do with Wotan getting shipped to Atlantis?"

"I didn't put him there, but I did point out that they had better facilities."

"Sounds like they should be talking to you, then. Maybe if you hadn't scared them all off..."

On the screen Kahndaqi police try launching tear gas at the protestors. In a second Adom's on site, throwing the grenades back at the police and then standing between them and their targets. The police back up in a hurry as the crowd cheer, causing him to grow a thin smile.

"Do you think..? Is there anything I can do to help you get your job back?"

She frowns and swivels around on her seat to face me. "Why? Is Strange blocking your conjugal visits?"

"Okay, look. Jade, is not my girlfriend. We are not **having**, and have never **had** sex. The only time she kissed me was to drug me with her lipstick and _in any case_ she isn't even **at** Belle Reve anymore."

She frowns. "When'd that happen?"

"Just after you left. She got transferred to Gloria McDonald. Her lawyer convinced a judge that since she'd helped the guards during the breakout attempt she wouldn't be safe there any longer."

"She's a career killer."

"She _was_ a career killer. I want to give her better choices." I wiggle my right hand. "Strange doesn't seem to have a problem with me visiting the Beresford's or Kadabra. Actually-" Another wiggle. "-he's a good deal friendlier than you are."

"So why're you offering to help?"

"Because I'd rather have someone who knows about prisons in charge of somewhere like Belle Reve. Because Strange is the first former head of Arkham not to end their tenure either dead or as an inmate, and there's something about him that I don't trust." Because he's a bad guy in the comics and I can see trouble brewing. "Because if someone's dragging their heels about reinstating you I'm worried that the other shoe will be a mass break out, for real this time."

She turns back to the bar. "Strange has been changing people around."

"So? That's normal, isn't it?"

"Maybe. After a break out there's a lot of finger pointing. If he was trying to scapegoat them I'd get it. I don't mean they _deserve_ it, they're all solid people, I wouldn't have hired them if they weren't but I'd get the _point_. He's not. He's arranging transfers and people are taking them. Promotions, even."

"I'd understand not wanting to hang around, given what happened."

"These aren't people who'd be put off easily. And the new hires don't have the experience. Something doesn't add up."

"Was Strange getting the job unusual in itself? I'd have assumed that it would have gone to a senior warden?"

"A little, but it's a special prison. Could just be they wanted him because of his Arkham background."

I nod. "I'll keep an eye out. But I'm not sure what that has to do with you getting your job back?"

"I _was_ going to meet someone about that." She looks past me towards the door. "But I suspect my meeting's been cancelled."

I frown and look around. Two black-suited bodyguards and a thin blonde man stand a little back from a thickset man in a blue suit with a red tie. His hair is black on top while his temples have faded to grey and he's looking at me with astonished horror.

Ah...

"Senator Knight. What an unexpected.. meeting."

**15th November  
13:42 GMT -4**

"So it works like a circuit board?"

"Aaaaaahhh... Sort of. With an active effect you'd need a practitioner controlling it, but it would still make it _much_ easier than doing it manually."

The man introduced to me as Steven Goldberg makes another note on his notebook while Henry Knight nods in understanding. You know, I'm actually sort of impressed. A lesser man might have started an argument or stormed off. Henry's decided that he needs to learn enough to avoid saying something stupid like that in public again and since I know more than him he swallowed his anger.

"And you're saying this is common practise in Atlantis?"

"Yes. I mean, not everyone has them. It's not really worth it for simple magics and the most advanced adepts reach the point where they don't need them, but if you're talking about most professional mages, yes. My friend Kaldur -Aqualad- uses his for generating electricity."

He gestures at my arm. "What do yours do?"

"They make me undetectable by means of magic.. and certain forms of advanced technology." Guy lost that spar _badly_. I can now stand right in front of him and his ring's default scanner won't detect me.

"And.. anyone can use things like that?"

"For _active_ stuff you'd need _training_, but, yeah."

"You don't need to be a member of some sort of cult, or descended from some great sorcerer or demon or something?"

"No." I smile. "As my friend John Constantine says, the ultimate secret of magic is that anyone can do it. A person's **soul** is essentially a stable magic network. Thousands of people -even without any particular training- use tiny amounts of magic actively all the time. That's why banning magic wouldn't work." He grimaces. "If you don't mind me asking, Senator; why didn't you ask us about this?" I shrug. "The League could have given you a summary, Mister Zatara's address is public knowledge."

He thinks for a moment, tapping his whiskey glass against the surface of the bar. "I suppose I just had a certain set of assumptions.. and in the absence of data to the contrary I didn't question them."

"Look.. um... I want to apologise. I.. shouldn't have... If I'd known it was an actual interview I'd have been a good deal more moderate in.. how I expressed myself."

"No, no. The damn journo shouldn't have ambushed you like that. And you're right, I should have checked my information before coming out that strongly." He sets his jaw a little to the left. "If I remember the last report from Commerce, America doesn't have significant trade with Atlantis. Hell, I don't think we even recognise each other's borders. You really think they'll help us with this?"

"King Orin didn't join the Justice League for fun." I picture him laughing with Kaldur after Ice Fortress One was brought down. "Well, not _just_ for fun. He's been trying to establish some sort of relationship with surface nations."

Henry turns to his assistant. "Steve, we need to set up a meeting with King Orin as soon as possible." Steve nods and fishes out a mobile phone. Henry turns back to me. "Is he.. actually _king_ or..?"

"Atlantis is a constitutional monarchy. The King of Poseidonis is nominally in charge of the country but most of the actual national governing is done by a senate comprised of representatives from each city-state. Individual city-states have a high degree of autonomy. Some have their own hereditary rulers who are subservient to King Orin, others have elected bodies or oligarchies."

"Do you think they'd be prepared to trade magic based weapons with us?"

"_That_ would depend on exactly what you want. I think they'd be very wary of sharing anything that could compromise their own defences, and if you're asking for ways to counter magic attacks.. that's basically what you're doing. I'm in the middle of getting some protective wards made for my friends and I'm going to be looking into getting manacles produced that can nullify the wearer's magic."

"Like the-" He wiggles his right forefinger at Ms Waller. "-collars that Belle Reve uses."

"Same idea, different mechanism. I'm going to be having a chat with my supplier. If you like I can ask what the rules are about selling to other governments."

"Ms Waller, do we have anything that can do that right now?"

"No, sir."

"Goddamn." He stares at the surface of the bar. "The more I hear about this the less I like it. Are you really telling me that the United States of America has no specific defences against magic based attack?"

"Yes sir."

"There's a few magic users around, Senator. But the nation as a whole?" I nod. "Basically." I take a book out of subspace and pass it to him.

One of the bodyguards moves to intercept it but Henry waves him off. "Don't bother, Hank. I think we can trust him. What is it?"

"A copy of the guide the previous Doctor Fate wrote for the All Star Squadron. Should give you a rough idea about the sorts of things that are possible."

"From the Second World War? This is really the best guide available?"

I shrug. "Atlantis hasn't needed to write books like that for outsiders for thousands of years. The best guide available would involve getting an actual Atlantean mage to advise you but they don't even have a consulate at the moment."

"America, requesting military aid to defend itself. Never thought I'd see the day." He takes a gulp from his glass. "Give me some idea; what's King Orin going to want in exchange?"

"The main _trade good_ they want would be high purity gold. Those circuit boards? They need the highest purity possible and Atlantis can't get it high enough to really maximise the advantage."

He nods. "Okay, we can do that. How about political stuff?"

"I'm afraid I don't know him well enough to say. You'd probably need to come to some sort of agreement about borders and shipping. Water quality's a **big** issue for them as I'm sure you can understand."

He nods, then something seems to occur to him. "Can they actually be made like printed circuit boards? Those.. rune set up things."

I blink. "I.. honestly don't know. Sounds _logical_.. in _theory_. You'd have to talk to an actual practitioner to be sure."

"It'll be more palatable to the Senate if I can present it as an equal exchange. I hope you can understand how I want to be sure of my position this time out."

"I was planning to visit my supplier next week. My professional relationship with the Atlantean Royal Artificer should make it easier for me to get information quickly."

He nods, finishes his drink and then stands and holds out his right hand to me. I take it. "Son, I wanna thank you. You might well be handing me the ladder I need to climb out of the hole I dug for myself. The hole **America's** dug for itself."

"We're here to help, sir."

Another nod. "Waller, we'll have to reschedule. I'll have someone phone you later."

"Yes sir." He turns and leads his party out of the bar. She gives a small sigh and shakes her head. "I don't know how the hell you did that."

I turn back to face Waller. "What?"

"That little conversation might just have made him electable again. And you only had to spike my chances to do it."

"What do you mean?"

"He needed to look strong on defence, to take a strong line on supervillains. I've got something that would help him do that in the works. His buy-in was going to be making a fuss about the hold up in publishing the report on the Belle Reve break out attempt. Now I'm back to square one in finding out who's behind that because you've given him something better."

"Oh. Um, sorry." Wait, she's not talking about-?

"And you didn't even mean it, did you?"

Ring, brain scan. "No. I should probably warn you, however, that if the thing you were going to discuss was some sort of brand X task force-" Her face doesn't move but the brain waves tell all. "-using convicted supervillains for black operations, if I found out that such an organisation existed, I would be obliged to inform my superiors in the Justice League. And the press."

Her eyes narrow at me. "I'll take that under advisement."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

Alternative.

**16th November**  
**19:17 GMT -4**

"Yeees, I suppose that _could_ work."

"Mister Zatara, would you _please_ take the Helmet off? I can't hold a serious conversation with a man whose head is glowing orange."

Zatanna was true to her word and is now lurking just within earshot as I describe in detail the alterations I wish to perform. We're in the training area now, waiting for Artemis and Green Arrow to arrive before heading off to see a 'finished example'. Only Zatanna and M'gann have expressed an interest in my assistance so far, though Wonder Woman has paid me a great deal more attention recently than at any time since my arrival. If I had to guess I'd say that Kon won't accept my offer without her approval despite wanting it so much that when I look at him his whole body is filled with roiling orange clouds. I think... No, that _does_ make me happy. A power up would be nice but at this point in his life a strong relationship with a primary caregiver is far more important.

"I believe that would violate my agreement with Nabu."

I roll my eyes. As if that matters anymore. "Lantern Nabu, you are hereby instructed to permit Giovanni Zatara to remove you at his leisure. Confirm command."

"cOnFiRmEd"

Mister Zatara tilts his head to the side for a moment, then reaches up and lifts the Helmet from his head. He holds it out to look it in the eyepieces. "What.. exactly.. did you do to Nabu?"

I shrug. "I can't honestly claim to understand the process _exactly_. It appears that I can use the orange light to.. well, _replace_any living thing, convert all of its energy and matter into an enduring construct. Nabu's personality and memories remain unaltered, it's simply that rather than you being subservient to _him_, _he's_ subservient to _me_."

"I'm still not sure that you should have done that. I made the agreement of my own free will."

"That's alright sir, we all make dumb decisions sometimes."

He narrows his eyes slightly as he looks at me. "It is a matter of personal integrity."

"No. Once he marked himself as our enemy it was a matter of working out the most expedient way in which to beat him, then doing it. If I let him take your body, what does that say to a spectre or to any other sort of dead man who feels like taking over one of us? So many inhuman things have so many advantages over us already I don't believe that holding back is a survivable option. As far as I'm concerned, if you haven't rigged the game then you're not trying hard enough."

His eyes widen in shock and recognition. "I once had a friend who told me a very similar thing. It did not turn out well for anyone involved."

Oh? "Did he have a power ring? Or a Father Box?"

He gives a slight shake of his head, looking away to the side. "You are a very.. _confident_ young man."

"Yes. I am. And with good reason, I think." Mister Tawny nudges the side of my right leg and I automatically reach my right hand down to scratch his head as he lets out a bored moan. I don't think he's quite intelligent enough to have understood me when I told him where we're going but he always appreciates sojourns outside the mountain.

Mister Zatara puts Nabu under his left arm. "Would your Father Box and ring allow you to reverse the changes if something went wrong?"

"No.. though, as I understand it the effects of the change would be gradual and it's well within my abilities to arrest it."

I suppose that I don't _need_ them to be entirely happy with the idea. I can well afford to play the long game and wait until my friends reach their majorities. It's just that it would be better all round if this happened sooner. Of course, if there really _is_ something which I've missed I'd rather find out about it _now_.

"I'm still not sure. Zatanna's magic abilities will improve on their own."

"Yes. Slowly and peaking far earlier. Aaand she'll still physically be a squishy baseline Human. My process would render her far more resilient."

We both look over to where Zatanna stands, wearing my Apokolips-tech armour and visor. "I _am_ grateful for what you've done, but I-"

"Recognised, Artemis B zero eight, Green Arrow zero eight, Black Canary one three, Wonder Woman zero three."

Ah. I look over to zeta tube one as the lights fade. I wasn't expecting Wonder Woman or Black Canary to be joining us. I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise. A little notice would have been nice, but no matter. All in uniform and armed. Zatanna scurries over to join us. I think we're about ready to go then. "Thank you all for coming. If you're all ready, our next stop is the east peak of Mount Hua."

"Ahhh, not so fast." Green Arrow raises an eyebrow. "Why exactly are we going to China?"

"I asked _you_ to come for the purpose of comparison. I wanted to compare your skills to those of the greatest archer on the planet."

"Oh really?" He crosses his arms. "And who exactly do you think _that_ is?"

"The Chinese super-functionary Celestial Archer." I hold up my hands defensively. "It would be far easier to introduce you than to _argue_ the point."

Wonder Woman frowns. "There isn't a zeta tube on Mount Hua."

"Who said anything about a zeta tube? Father Box, boom tube to Mount Hua."

_"Ploong."_

A booming rush of displaced air and a white-rimmed portal appears. On the other side is a stone pavilion on a rocky platform high above a tree-filled valley. I gesture to the boom tube with my right hand. "Shall we?"

Mister Tawny leads the way. Are there Tigers in that part of China? I don't _think_ so. The mountain's too touristy, surely? Zatanna goes through next, quickly followed by her father, then Artemis, Green Arrow and Black Canary. Wonder Woman remains where she is, looking at me. "Ladies first." She continues to regard me for a moment and then crosses over. I follow.

**17th November**  
**07:21 GMT +8**

Green Arrow walks over to the railings at the edge of the platform and looks down. He whistles. "Quite a drop."

"Indeed, sir." The Boom Tube shuts down, revealing Xu Tao sitting cross-legged on an outcrop of rocks just back from the winding path up to the pavilion, Celestial Bow of Yi resting on his knees. He wears a blue tabard and loose blue trousers, though I know for a fact that he wears armour under both. In the centre of his chest his heraldic device is a yellow disc with blue decoration. His arms and head are bare, revealing a well muscled physique and youthful face. He's sixteen, and only recently inducted into the Great Ten.

Green Arrow ambles in his direction. "So, Orange Lantern says that you're the greatest archer in the world."

Tao nods solemnly. "I believe that to be true, sir."

I have to hand it to him; his English is really quite excellent, especially when one considers that he hasn't been studying it for much more than a year. I didn't actually meet him during my first visit, but Chairman Jiang was more than happy to lend him to me. "Celestial Archer's soul structures have been modified in the same way that I am proposing doing to Zatanna." I flick my eyes over to Artemis. "And such other of my team mates as express an interest. The goddess Chang'e's skill far exceeds mine, but he should be able to give you some idea of the end state of the process." I smile at Green Arrow. He's an easy going enough fellow, but I can see the urge to compete building with him. "I took the liberty of setting up some targets, sir. If you'll turn your attention to the mountainside behind Celestial Archer..?"

Standard archery targets supported by wooden poles slotting into holes I made in the rock. I'll repair the damage after the demonstration. The closest is at one hundred metres, then a further nine at twenty five metre intervals along the mountainside. I don't imagine that the first five or six will present much of a challenge to Green Arrow once he's got his eye in and grown used to the local air currents, though the furthest will. That isn't the point. This is a contest between a heroic mortal and a young man who might as well be an exalt. I know Tao will win. I want to make a point concerning the difference between skilled mortals and broken demigod bullshit. I want to help my friends escape the baseline Human crab bucket the people of this world seem to want to live in.

Just a bit of a shame that one of the few Leaguers I haven't alienated yet has to sacrifice his ego for me to do it.

**17th November**  
**07:23 GMT +8**

Green Arrow unslings his bow while looking over the targets. "Hm. Bit _mundane_ given all this build up, but I'm game." He looks up at Tao. "How are we scoring this?"

Tao looks at me a little uncertainly. "I had thought that this was to be a demonstration. I did not think that we would be competing."

Green Arrow smiles. "Yeah, keep telling yourself that. Artemis, you want in?"

Artemis looks at the targets, at Tao, at me and then back at him. "Oh_h_ no. I know a set up when I see one."

Green Arrow moves his right hand to cover his heart. "Your lack of faith wounds me, Artemis. Right here."

"Mister Zatara." I gesture to Green Arrow who's already putting his first arrow to string. Should I tell him that that's an inefficient technique? No, this is a test of accuracy, not speed. He should do whatever he's most comfortable with, and anyway I'm not sure the fast shot technique works with his trick arrows. "Subject one, 'Green Arrow', real name.. _nominally_classified, thirty two years of age. Baseline Human. With no significantly debilitating injuries he's at his physical prime. Began studying the use of the bow when he was.. nineteen, I believe?" Green Arrow turns his head my way and nods once. "And has continued to train himself since, using the criminals of Star City as target practice. For this demonstration he'll be using simple point arrows and a conventional recurve bow with a draw weight of around fifty kilograms."

He pulls the string taught and then relaxes it a little, limbering himself up. "One hundred and one pounds."

"Forty five kilograms."

"Sounds a lot less impressive like that."

Black Canary smiles as she shakes her head. I just roll my eyes. "Forty five thousand grams, then. Though the majority of his experience is in precise, rapid, short ranged shots his skill in other areas is advanced enough to put him in the top ten.. probably top five archers on the planet."

"Oh yeah?"

"I wouldn't have bothered asking if it wasn't a reasonable comparison."

"No, I mean how come I'm not number one? Or-" He nods at Tao. "-two, according to you?"

"I judge Shado's skill at long ranged and indirect fire to be superior to yours. Malcolm Merlyn has demonstrated the ability to shoot out individual organs." I incline my head towards Wonder Woman. "The Amazons Aella and Dessa are noted for their skill with the bow amongst a race who have had three thousand years to gain experience with primitive weapons. In fact, I would say that of the top one hundred archers in the world at least eighty five are Amazons."

"Really?" He looks at Black Canary. "Maybe I should visit sometime? Show those ladies how to _really_ handle a s-" She pokes him in the ribs. "Hey, kidding!"

"He's about as good as baseline Humans get. It is also worth noting that Green Arrow hasn't practised in this environment before. The shape of the valley and the temperature of the rocks can create difficult air currents-"

"_**P**__lease_. I work in a _city_!"

"Perhaps the trees, then? I.. think that's everything. Oh, for this demonstration no artificial aids.. sights, anemometers, externally applied enchantments.. will be in use. Loose when ready."

Green Arrow loosens his neck, draws and takes aim at the first target. "How big're those targets?"

"One metre twe-" There's a thwack as his first arrow strikes the first target dead centre. "nty." Bull's eye on the one hundred metre target. Tao doesn't look around.

Green Arrow notches another arrow. "Are we taking it in turns, or what?"

I make a dismissive gesture with my right hand. "Take a shot at each target. There's no hurry."

His second and third bury themselves in their target's centre. Fourth is a little off-centre, though still within the bull's eye. Green Arrow tilts his head to the side. "See what you mean about the air currents." He notches his fifth and takes noticeably longer to aim before loosing. Dead centre at two hundred metres. Despite myself I find that I'm being impressed. I mean, it's a pointlessly outdated weapon and all that but he's _bloody good_ with it. He looks up at Tao. "Worried yet?"

"No, sir."

"Oh really?"

"May I say, I consider that it is a privilege for me to compete with you."

"You may."

Tao frowns. "I beg your pardon, sir. I have been learning English for only a short time. I do not believe that I understand..?"

"Ah, don't worry about it." He draws his sixth. "_This_ is where it gets interesting..." The distance is enough that we can actually watch the arrow in flight. Thwack! Right on the black line between the inner and middle rings. "A_a_ah." Two hundred and twenty five metres and he's disappointed? I'm impressed that he can hit the damn thing at all. There'd be a delay in me hitting it from here with a construct! I mean, that's what laser projection constructs are for, but still. He notches and draws another, now completely focused on his task. Shoom.. thwack. Blue, outer circle. He takes a moment to breathe before slowly drawing another arrow, notching, drawing and taking aim. The arrow is visibly pointed away from the target now. Another careful breath and he looses. Thwack. Inner red. A hit at two hundred and fifty metres. Should I call the people at the Guinness Book of Records? His eighth arrow is drawn just as slowly as the seventh. He aims, looses and.. it moves past the target to break on the vertical wall of the mountain. "U_uh_ No do-overs, right?" He lowers the bow and rolls his shoulders before taking out a new arrow. "This next one's about three hundred twenty yards, right?"

"About that."

He takes a couple of deep breaths, notches, draws, aims and looses. As he does I find that I actually rather want him to win. I mean, it'd be pretty terrible if he _did_, but... My goodness. Outer blue at three hundred metres. Ring, that wasn't _us_, was it?

Negative. No assistance was provided.

I suppose.. over that sort of range the factors that he can't properly predict mount up. If he took five more shots at the same target he might not get any more hits.

"Last one." He's smiling as he looks at Black Canary. "Kiss for luck?" For a second her eyes flick over the rest of us before she walks up to him and lightly presses her lips to his. They stay together for a moment and then she steps back. "Well, now I've _really_ got to hit it." He takes out another arrow and looks it over critically. He runs his right index finger along the shaft and the tip then checks the fletching before holding it up to stare along its length. Finding no imperfections he notches, draws and takes careful aim. Three hundred and twenty five metres. He looses, all of us staring intently at the path of the arrow as it flies towards.. and over the top of the target. And the mountain.

Whoops. Ring, transfer! I appear on the far side of the ridge, an orange aura extending from me in all directions. The arrow slows to a stop and it flies towards me and I pick it up with my right hand before transferring back and returning it to it's owner. He takes it with a slight wince. "Eight hits out of ten, the furthest at three hundred metres. Perhaps you are number two after all, sir."

"Haven't seen number _one_ yet." He looks up at Tao once more. "Well, Celestial Archer? Still think you can do better?"

"Would you please step back a little, sir?"

"Ah, okay?" He and I both move back towards the pavilion as Tao closes his eyes. He takes a single arrow out of the quiver on his back before closing a flap over the top of it.

"Subject two, 'Celestial Archer', real name Xu Tao, sixteen years of age." His eyes open. "Augmented Human. Began studying the use of the bow when he was fourteen and more or less fell over the Celestial Bow of Yi." His eyes flick down and his lips tighten. Is he embarrassed about it? "Was conscripted into the Great Ten in two thousand and eight after a brief period of independent operation. His augmentations are a gift from the goddess Chang'e, the widow of his bow's former owner. Please note that unlike me she was able to fully charge his soul grafts almost immediately. The Celestial Bow -if I understand correctly- is an arcane weapon with an infinite draw capacity. Superman could pull on it without being able to overdraw it. Celestial Archer, begin when ready."

He bows his head slightly, eyes narrowed, arrow resting loosely against his bowstring. He's still sitting facing us with the targets behind him. He starts leaning forwards, overbalancing. As he falls to a right angle with the rock face he pushes off, spinning vertically and horizontally as he does so. I can't even track it as his arrow disappears, his body twisting to bring his legs back underneath him as he bends his legs slightly to absorb the impact. He straightens facing us and then gives his audience a shallow bow.

Green Arrow looks puzzled. "Okay, but.. what..?" He looks at the first target. His own arrow has been shot through the middle. "Oh, trick shot is it? _Pretty_ good. Now lets see you do the res-." Black Canary lays her right hand on his shoulder and point to the next target with her left hand. Another of Tao's arrows has split his. He blinks and then takes another look at Tao's quiver. Yes, still closed. His arrow at the third target has similarly been split. In the fourth, Tao's arrow is firmly placed at the centre. Fifth is split, then centre, centre, centre, centre and centre. Green Arrow gapes in astonishment. "But-! How did-!"

Zatanna points at Tao while looking at her father. "See Dad, totally safe. And _amazing_!"

"To perform many shots with one arrow is one of the advanced techniques I am able to perform." Tao shifts his weight to his left leg. "I.. have not offended you, I hope? You have been an inspiration to me."

"If you're still not convinced sir, I set up some targets on the ridge line over there." I point out across the valley.

Green Arrow and Artemis both turn around and try and get their heads around the idea. Tao shifts his weight to his right leg. "I... I am sorry?"

Green Arrow waves at him. "No, no... That's.. that's fine." He turns to look at Black Canary. "Maybe we should have kissed for longer?" She pats him on the shoulder.

Artemis takes one last look across the valley before walking up to an increasingly uncomfortable looking Xu Tao. "You got any plans for the rest of the day?"

He leans back slightly. "Um? No?" He looks at me for direction, initiative not being encouraged amongst the Great Ten. I point at him with my right index finger and mime sniggering. He looks back at Artemis. "Is there something that you want to do?"

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Resume.

**17th November  
16:37 GMT -4**

I breath in as I take a look around the living area. "It's a bit of a fixer upper. Are you sure about this?"

Miss Robinson smiles as she nods. "I've lived in plenty worse."

I shift weight from my left foot to my right. It always makes me a little uncomfortable when she says things like that. I mean, I _know_ that her life's been really hard but every time she says or does something which shows she thinks it's _normal_-.

"Why're you glowing?"

"I am?" I look at my hands. Yes, I am in fact glowing. "Um, sometimes when I want something really bad but don't quite know how to get it the ring just sort of 'builds up'. It's nothing to worry about."

"Rrrright..."

"Will Miss Chase be joining us?"

"Ehh, she's got work 'til later." She sniffs. "Oh, _finally_, the smell's gone." She walks towards one of the damp-rotted windows. "Thought I'd have to leave the windows open all winter." She pulls it closed. "Why'd you call her that?"

"What, Miss Chase? She told me that's what her name is."

"Her name's _Karon_." She walks along to the next window. "No one calls girls like us 'Miss'. _Seriously_. Are you secretly, like, fifty or something?"

"... I'm eighteen. Would you prefer I called you something else?"

"What's wrong with Holly?"

"Nothing's wrong with Holly, I just didn't want to make assumptions. I can call you Holly."

"Oookay then." She looks at me like I've said something weird, then gives the second window a tug. It sticks for a moment and then it comes free, thumping closed. "If it's not 'cause you're fifty, is that just how English people talk?"

"I've.. been brushing up on my diction since coming to America. I think I've.. maybe been taking it a bit far."

"Y'think?" She rubs her arms. The central heating isn't working yet and she didn't want to put the fan heater on while the windows were open. She's wearing two hoodies and she's still cold. "Are you planning on sticking around?"

I flap my hands in the direction of the door. "I can.. get lost if you want me-."

"No! I just need to go out and get a few things." She puts her right index finger to her lips and taps in twice. "Think I can _probably_ trust you in here on your own."

"I'll.. put a vacuum around.." I take a look around the room again. "Or dust pan and brush or.. something."

She makes an amused snort and smiles at me. Compared to most things I've been doing a little light home improvement is practically a holiday. With the ring ambient temperature isn't something I really worry about, though after leaving the Fortress in the arctic circle I've given serious thought to incorporating heating elements into my armour. The trick is getting a battery that can take the strain for long enough, and working out whether incorporating the extra point of failure is worth it in the handful of situations where it'll matter.

"Okay, well, I'll be back in about a half hour. There's beer in the fridge."

"W-."

"You don't drink, do you."

"N-no. No. Um. I don't."

She's giggling as she walks towards the door. "You're a real one-of-a-kind, you know that?"

"Thank you?"

She closes the door behind her with a rattle and I wince slightly as I have another look around. I can well understand her wanting to be out of her old flat but I sort of assumed that she'd just rent somewhere nicer. True, this place was dirt cheap considering the location, but that was because three people were ritually murdered here and after twelve years the estate agents just really wanted it off their books. 'A bit of love' isn't really going to cut it. Damp, rot in the wood, three different flavours of mould... I'm not sure she wouldn't be better off just getting it knocked down and then rebuilding. I mean, it looks nice. Ish. If you stand back a bit. And if she pulls it off she could resell for a large profit...

If I'm helping, I'm helping the whole way. I jerk my ring downwards and Fatty falls out onto the floor. He lays there for a moment before slowing floating himself upwards without moving from his recumbent position.

"No food?"

"Fatty, I realise I may regret saying this, but you are aware you can take more power from the orange light, right?"

"Huh?"

"Never mind. Fatty, this house belongs to a friend of mine. She's had a rather hard life to date and I'd like to make it a bit easier. To do that we need to make the house structurally sound. We leave the _decorating_ to her but we're fixing everything else." I take a breath. "It's time to Disney up in this bitch."

Orange gossamer fairy wings form on my back and an orange wand appears in my right hand. And I'm surprisingly okay with that. I give it an experimental wave across the far wall and orange light splurges from the tip, cleaning brickwork, mending wood and drying plaster. Maybe I could work this into... No. Another wave fixes joists and floorboards and adds a layer of instantly drying varnish. Years of dust explode from the rug, colours suddenly as vibrant as they were when it was first woven.

"Fatty, see what you can do about any residual spiritual energies from the murder."

"Food?"

"Sure, eat all you want. Last thing Gotham needs is more psychic filth around the place."

He claps his chubby little hands together excitedly, a disturbingly broad grin spreading across his face. A second later he's gone, an orange trail heading upstairs in the direction of the room in which a brain damaged vagrant tortured a family of three to death before stabbing himself through the eyes.

Fucking Gotham.

No, not thinking about it. Another wand twirl replaces the cracked and dirty windows with sheets of clear diamond and replaces the rotten frames with a hard synthetic wood-like substance. I grin as a light wing flap takes me into the air. Add a bit of life to those settee cushions. Repair the ceiling rose and dust the ornate light fitting. Fuse and earth the electrics. Double wands! Vacuum cleaner constructs roar as I send them shooting throughout the house, floors, walls and ceilings. Defur the insides of the pipes and add carbon nanotubes for strength and _because I __**can**_! I put the drip-catching buckets in the loft into subspace as I straighten and clean the roof tiles, transmuting new ones to cover holes where they've fallen away. I swing the wands with wild abandon, everything that makes the house anything less than Holly deserves evaporating before my **need**. With a clunk the boiler starts up again and I hurriedly generate thermostatic controllers in every room. Could change it to run on electricity instead of gas but I think I'll leave that for Holly to decide. Swinging the wands upwards I spread the orange light upwards to the first floor. I'll have this place in tip top shape-

Some knocks on the door and I suddenly remember myself. _Fiiiine_. The wings fade away and the wands evaporate. Boring filament bound constructs continue the repair work as I drop lightly to the floor and head over to the door. Is Karon back early? Doesn't seem likely but I haven't looked up her workplace. Holly hasn't asked me to keep our association a secret but it would probably be best if I wasn't _obviously_ Orange Lantern just in case. Another knock. Right, right. I stride to the door and reach for the latch. Should I use the chain? Not like I need it but a normal Gothamite probably would... Nah. It's a good.. ish.. neighbourhood and I'm fairly physically imposing. I should be able to get away with it. Turn the latch and open the door.

And blink.

Hello, Ms Kyle.

**17th November  
16:53 GMT -4**

She blinks at me in surprise. "Oh. Hello." She's wearing a pale yellow blouse, light brown jacket and brown trousers and she's carrying a brown paper shopping bag. I was pleased to learn that despite what television tried to teach me the Americans _are_ in fact intelligent enough to know that shopping bags need handles.

"Good afternoon. Can I help you?"

She leans back slightly to check the house number, then sizes me up. I've made the switch from my summer vest to a dark grey dress shirt but my ring crafted musculature is still fairly evident. "Where's Holly?"

"She just popped out to get some stuff. Do you want to come in and wait for her?" I point my right thumb at the room behind me.

Another look. Is she checking me for weapons? Catwoman's checking me for weapons! Eeeeeeee! "And, who are you?"

"Oh, don't worry about me, I'm just here to burgle the place, you'll barely know I'm h-"

The first blow strikes me in the neck. It doesn't hurt but I'm knocked back into the house by the surprise. I hear a bang as the bag drops and the second blow strikes me across the eyes. I turn my head away from it instinctively. A baton? What? Oh no... Another strike to the head then what feels like it was supposed to be a heavy punch to the groin. When I don't react she dives past me, rolls to her feet and takes a stance.

No, stop this before it gets any sillier.

"Ms Kyle, I'd like to apologise for what was clearly a.. _very badly_ misjudged attempt at humour. I'm Orange Lantern two eight one _four_, and-"

"Prove it."

Agh, damn it, it's just like when Diana told me to say something to prove the ring could translate! I've only been doing this four sodding months... I drop my hands to the side and rise into the air in a flare of orange light. She relaxes _slightly_ and lowers the baton. "Also, if it helps my case I _totally_ think you're better for him than Talia is."

"What?"

"No? O.. kay. Iiiii'll stop listening to rumours then." Darn it, I totally ship those two. "**So**!" I drop to the floor, smile and clap my hands together while being careful not to move towards her or do anything else that could be taken as aggressive action."What brings you here?"

She looks over at the bag. "House warming present."

I wince. "Wasn't.. breakable, was it?" I turn around to look at the bag. I can't _see_ anything leaking. "I'm _really_ sorry about.. um.. just sounded a lot funnier in my head."

Keeping her distance slightly she walks around the room to recover her bag. "Just some groceries."

"I can unbruise fruit!"

"It's just cans and boxes." She squats to pick it up. "You can unbruise _fruit_?"

"I like bananas being at a very particular ripeness. It seemed like a useful thing to learn."

She opens her mouth to comment, then dismisses it with a shake of her head. "I'm going to put these in the kitchen."

"Alri- ohwaithangonaminute!"

Too late! The anthropomorphised orange vacuum cleaner drives through the opening from the kitchen, stops in front of her, looks at her for a moment, _beeps_ and then takes a sharp left turn and drives up the wall, refreshing the paint as it goes.

I should probably have removed the construct before it did that.

Ms Kyle looks at me in bewilderment. "Had a.. bit of a Disney.. fairy godfather thing going on. They're not actually.. you know, _intelligent_..."

"I thought the house looked a little different." She watches it go for a moment _and why have I still not got rid of it_? It vanishes in a puff of orange. Ms Kyle looks at me for a moment and then carries on to the kitchen.

"It was that or.. basically rebuild the whole thing."

"I told her she should get a survey done first." She slows as she gets into the kitchen. Oohhhhh. I.. marbled? I think I might have got a bit carried away. It looks _nice_ but I should really have run this level of change past Holly first. Ms Kyle walks to the closest work surface, puts the bag down and starts unloading. "So why'd you do it?"

"Enchanted, I think? Or maybe Beauty and the Beast? I mean, I work for an Amazon so subverted gender stereotypes just go with-"

She sighs and sags her shoulders slightly. "No, not _that_. Why did you give Holly the money to buy this house?"

"It produced the best outcome for everyone involved. What, should I have beaten her up and sent her to Blackgate?" I shrug. "What's the point in that?"

"Fairy godfather, huh?"

"Hey, I rock the fairy wings." She looks at me with an amused frown and I recreate the glowing butterfly wings and wand. She snorts and shakes her head. "Um, on a slightly more serious note..." I generate a construct of just prior to my first meeting with Holly. Ms Kyle watches her start her run up, spot me and lose speed, barely making the leap. "I made another badly judged joke about not helping her up here. She.. kinda freaked out." I let it continue playing as I haul her up and she pulls out her knife, first waving it at me and then at the picture. There's some posturing, then she puts the knife down. "The next bit still worries me." Holly's posture gets less angry/scared and more defeated/scared. She pulls off her hoodie again, and then her t-shirt. We both watch the shock on construct-me's face as he covers his eyes. I dismiss the image. "If I'm taking on a problem.. and I'm in this.. all the way... I'd like to know how big it is. How bad things have been for her. Why she thought.. that was.. what I was looking for."

Ms Kyle nods. "You said something that sounded like a threat, didn't you?" I face the floor as I nod. "She was never a prostitute, as far as I know. Not in the sense of having sex for money, but.. for runaways and street kids there's.. often a coercive element. You need food, you need a safe place to sleep.. need to feel safe at all." She looks away, her gaze becoming distant. "They need affection, which state institutions just don't provide. Not in Gotham anyway."

"Do you have any... I'm not really.. _trained_ for this. Is there anything in particular I should do? Or _not_ do? I don't.. don't want to be a-" I grimace. "-_coercive_ element. Or look like or.. be thought of as a coercive element."

"I.. think you're doing alright. I've tried to look after her, but my life isn't exactly-"

"You're Catwoman." A degree of caution reappears in her countenance. "Irregular hours, uncertain payoffs, not exactly an ideal role model. Um, no offence."

"None.. taken. You don't seem concerned..?"

I shrug. "While I don't want to diminish the negative effects of theft on a society.. a few high value items being taken from very rich people doesn't really change much. Plus, acting against you would harm my relationship with Holly." She looks a little sceptical. "Ms Kyle, each week I visit a friend of mine in the Gloria McDonald Prison on Rhode Island. She.. _was_.. a career assassin. She hasn't been convicted of murder but I know full well that's probably because she's good at covering her tracks. And I don't care. I can neither change the past nor raise the dead. But, I can try and persuade her that there are better ways to live.. and help her pick one."

A wry smile. "You have a soft spot for damsels in distress?"

"I'm also visiting two guys in Belle Reve. Don't.. _think_.. Thomas would like being called a damsel..." He's actually attending classes. Took a while to talk him into it. A lot of draughts games with the board projected onto the transparent panel between us. He doesn't appear to be finding the tuition rewarding as yet. He might have attended school for longer than Jade but I don't think he was paying that much attention to the teachers. I was pleased to learn that despite going back to India Doctor Munro still phones him and Tuppence twice a week. "They need help I don't think they'll get from anywhere else. Anyone else. I guess.. maybe I do?"

"Hm. Well, I don't think Holly has any particular panic buttons. Just.. keep doing what you're doing now." She smiles, and opens a wall cabinet to start loading tin cans in. "And you're right."

"About what?"

"I'm far better for him than Talia is."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

Alternative.

**19th November**  
**16:31 GMT -4**

I try to keep my intense dislike of telepathic intrusion suppressed as Mister J'onzz and I stand in the formless void. Oh, he _says_ that in this state he can't hear what I'm thinking and I've kept my ring-based defences up as much as I can but _I_ can perceive a thing which _he_ can't. This simply won't work unless he has access to my senses and that requires _some_connection. In the real world the two of us are sitting down a short distance from M'gann while Mister King and Lantern Jordan monitor the three of us. Nice to see that he learned _that_ lesson from last time.

"Father Box. Show the man."

_"Ploong."_

Three pictures shimmer into existence in front of us. The first is a cut-away of a Martian in their default form. The second is a artistic representation of M'gann's mind, her network of thoughts. Mister J'onzz will get more out of _that_ than I do. I mean, I can sort of feel what different bits do but I'm much less familiar with the use of his telepathic sense than he is. The third is the best image of emotional-spiritual systems I can come up with. I'm.. finding.. that I am getting something of an instinct for certain spiritual resonances, one not tied to the ring or to Father Box. I don't have the words to describe it. I'm not sure that English does. A sort of fuzzy.. mental feel? An inadequate description, but the best I can manage. Low level psychometry? Perhaps I am indeed becoming a New God. Won't that be fun. There shouldn't even be much risk of the **real**Grayven hearing about me until I'm a little better positioned to defend myself.

"As you can see sir, it has almost no physical presence at all." I make a beckoning motion with my right hand and the image of the Martian's head is enlarged, the outer surface peeled away until we can see the brain. "But, if we look at the arcane layer..." The mess of M'gann-shaped colours surrounds us. Reminds me a little of tie-dyeing, _except_... "You see here? This band of green? The way it binds this patch of yellow?" I look over at my co-worker. Mister J'onzz narrows his eyes and for a moment I get a disorientating burst of feedback as he probes the irregularity using my enhanced awareness. "Now, if we switch to the mental layer..." All I see is a neural network, but again I magnify it to show positively _tiny_ attachments of green and yellow.

"They seem so tiny."

"Their presence doesn't need to be particularly large. I _am_ a little surprised at the Guardians utilising the light of fear in this way, but they know far more about it than me."

"And there are no physical signs at all."

"If there _were_, it would have failed. Martians are shapeshifters.. but you're also telepathic. Do Martian mothers commune with their children in the womb? Because as I understand it that's all it would take. The slightest mental or spiritual contact-"

"I've seen **e**_nough_."

Aaaand back in the room. I blink as I adjust to the separation and real environment. Uuugh. I either need to avoid spiritual travails like that in future or train in them because I feel rough as vulture sick. Mister J'onzz floats to normal head height before unfolding from his cross-legged sitting position. Mister King winces slightly while M'gann and Lantern Jordan just look curious.

"J'onn? What happened?"

It's then that I notice that Mister J'onzz hasn't landed. His arms are at his side and his fists are clenched. I don't know Martian body language but he's probably been on Earth long enough to have adopted Human expressions and he looks bloody furious. He floats over to just in front of Lantern Jordan.

"It is _exactly_ as he said. I witnessed bands of green light forcing her mind, her very spirit into patterns _they_ dictate."

Jordan raises his hands defensively. "Hey, hold on J'onn. I'm sure the Guardians wouldn't have done this without a good reason. If it even _was_ the Guardians in the first place."

"For making my entire species afraid of simple exothermic reactions?! They have violated our most **intimate** psychic links with this abomination! What _possible_ excuse-?"

"Actually sir, I might be able to answer that." Mister J'onzz turns to look at me. He appears not to have noticed how much his outburst is disturbing M'gann, who's stared up at him wide-eyed. I haven't bothered getting to my feet myself. "What does the Martian species know of their ancient forebears?"

"The Martian environment is not kind to archaeological remains on the planet's surface. Much of our _ancient_ history is lost to us. What are you implying?"

"The Guardians are ancient. Some of what I've read suggests that they are a branch of the first sentient species in this galaxy. If the records of ancient Mars are lost they may well have involved themselves before that time."

"Wait just a minute there." Jordan turns his attention to me. "I'm not going to stand by while you accuse the Guardians of doing something like this without hard evidence. Altering the minds of an entire species goes against everything they stand for. John and I already asked them about it and they said they had nothing to do with it."

"Oh _p-lease_ Lantern Jordan. Do you really think a people as old as the Guardians don't have any number of things they'd rather not become common knowledge? Do you really think they've never made a single shameful mistake? When next you speak with them ask them for the _real_ reason why nothing lives in Sector Six Six Six. Ask them about the war with Apokolips which cost the lives of most of their Corps, and whose resolution had them abandon First Lantern Raker Quarrigat as a trophy for Darkseid." The ring might have no data on it but Father Box was only too happy to boast of Darkseid's glorious victory. More fear-aura hypertech than yellow body armour but it was fairly conclusive just the same. "Ask them about the Corpse, their little band of black ops murderers. Ask them of Krona, of Parallax, of the robot Manhunters, of the Anti-Monitor, of the Psions. Why they handed the first four green rings over to the first Green Lanterns without providing then _any training at all_. And when they've finished soiling themselves at the idea of another being knowing about those things, ask them about Larfleeze and how they threw the Vega Systems to the Beast."

"That... How would you _know_ any of that?"

I speak slowly. "I. Have. A. Father. Box. If you don't believe me, feel free to go to Maltus and check. Heck, get yourself some space armour and take off your ring and I'll send you to Vega. Or Ysmault, if you feel like living dangerously."

"Those worlds are off-limits."

"How convenient. Mister J'onzz, I don't know what your forebears did to earn the Guardian's ire but I _can_ remove their taint from M'gann." And that's true. I don't _know_, not for certain. Since I'm not suicidal I have been checking and as far as I can work out the mechanism which allows Martians to communicate with their unborn can also impose forms of thought upon them. If Burning Martians are a thing here.. or _were_ a thing, then their offspring would have been so overwhelmed by their ferocious mental states that they would _always_ have come out as Burners themselves. M'gann on the other hand is a well-socialised individual surrounded by _us_. Would the Burners have been as they were because they carried with them the thoughts of their presentient ancestors? It sounds like it makes sense and it _would_ mean that the Guardians altering them was probably the only way to turn them into the civilised people they are now. Buuut, they don't leave their caves. They haven't colonised or mined off their planet, despite having the technical capacity to do so. There _still_ isn't any sort of permanent diplomatic presence on the only other inhabited planet in the system. The Guardian's modifications might have all sorts of knock on effects. Why have they just left it there?

"I would rather that you performed the procedure on me. If there were any unintended side effects-"

"Then it would be better that the Martian with medical experience was unaffected and able to offer aid. "

"You _could_ bring someone here from Mars. Under the circumstances I am certain that many would offer to make the journey."

"Do you think any Martian doctor could keep that secret? Do you really want to incite a worldwide panic on Mars? Besides, I don't think I like you enough to want to help you enough to use the ring. M'gann-" I turn to her. "-how about it? Do you feel like becoming the first Martian in recorded history not to fear flames?"

She looks down as she thinks about it. "I'm not sure. I mean, what if something goes wrong?"

"Then I'll reinstate the block. This is actually far safer than what Zatanna's trying to persuade Mister Zatara to let me do to her because I _can_ fully reverse it. I'll be monitoring you constantly and at the first sign of something going wrong I'll intervene."

She looks at Mister J'onzz and then back to the ground. "Would it hurt?"

"I can't think of any reason why it would but I can't answer for sure without having performed it on anyone first."

"O-okay." She looks up at me with a small smile. "I want you to do it."

"Mister J'onzz? No objection?"

"None."

"Excellent. M'gann, hold still a moment."

"What exactly-?"

Orange cables extend from my hands and plug into her head. She looks alarmed, but since I can interact with the lock directly it doesn't take more than a moment to finish her liberation. I dismiss the cables. "There. Done. Do you feel any different?"

"N..o. Not really." She waves her right arm and generates a second forearm for a moment. "My shapeshifting-" **-and telepathy-** "-feel the same as normal. Are you sure it's gone?"

"Let's find out." I take a ceramic bowl half filled with copper chloride powder in methanol out of subspace and hold it out. "Ready?" She nods, clearly scared of being scared. The compulsion must be quite unpleasant. I fear things myself, but nothing so common as fire. "Ring, ignite."

"By your command."

There's a whoosh as the fumes over the bowl ignite. M'gann flinches but almost immediately steadies herself, staring wide-eyed at the flames. "Well? What do you think?"

She continues staring, transfixed as the flames billow in front of her. "I think... I think it's _beautiful_."

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Resume.

**22nd November  
10:51 GMT -4**

"So this is where you grew up, huh?"

Robin's standing on the bank of Westham village pond, looking across the water. Teekl's sniffing the bushes and Fatty's floating overhead.

"Well, in a manner of speaking. Used to come for walks around here, though I.. stopped bothering as I got older."

"When you said you came from a parallel universe I though it would be.. y'know, _different_."

I turn to look at where Wallace is sitting, on the short wall dividing the pond-area from the path.

"If it had been _very_ different I wouldn't have survived coming into _your_ universe. On the other hand, if you tried mixing up the Garrick Formula here you wouldn't get very far. Don't even know if your speed would work." M'gann and Kon are sitting on the bench, arms around each other with Wolf sitting on Kon's lap. I completely missed that Wallace didn't know they were seeing each other. Not that _I_ noticed until Kon told me, I suppose. "Thanks for doing this, M'gann. I... It's really nice to be able to see it again."

"No problem. Oh! Can we go and see the castle next? I've never seen a English medieval castle before!"

"You know it's.. more or less the same on your Earth, right? Aside from where the Ophidian and I changed all the signs?"

"Well.. yeah..."

I snort and smile. "Of course we can. Come on, the best route takes us past a church that's more than nine hundred years old. That's about four times older than the United States."

They get up to follow as I lead the way down the road. Shame the others couldn't be with us but Zatanna's school doesn't break up for Thanksgiving, Artemis had been rather letting the homework pile up, Kaldur's doing something with King Orin and Robert _clearly_ isn't getting out of school for a _colonial_ celebration. I'm rather pleased with the way he's been coping with the training. He thinks that with Black Canary's focused training program he should be able to go for his judo brown belt some time before Christmas. He told me that he picked judo because he thought he'd mostly be fighting people much weaker than himself and wanted to be sure that he knew how to take them down while doing as little lasting damage as possible. Canary told me that she plans to introduce him to Brazilian jujitsu because that isn't the case any more.

Some of the buildings on Westham high street shimmer uncertainly. The ones which have changed ownership or that I never paid much attention to. Spoils the illusion a bit but I _do_ have clear memories of-

"Robin, Kid Flash, Superboy, Miss Martian, Orange Lantern. Report for mission briefing."

I turn back to look at my team mates and shrug. M'gann smiles at me apologetically. "We can always come back later."

I nod, then my eyes snap open and I push myself upright. Lilos! So much better than those weird bier things Mister J'onzz had for us during the exercise. Around me my team mates are taking a moment to collect themselves. We took over one of the small side rooms like the one Black Canary used for the team's counselling sessions. Shoved all of the furniture to the sides of the room and then stuck down the lilos. I swing my legs over the side and rise to my feet before returning mine to subspace. Robin's already heading out of the door while M'gann helps Kon up.

Wallace looks at me as I subspace everyone else's lilos. "What d'you think it's about?"

"Not sure. No advanced notice _again_ so it's probably something fairly immediate."

"Think he might have found that Dark Druid guy?"

"Maybe, but I don't think he'd pass that on to _us_. Given the Security Council discussions on dealing with worldwide supervillain attacks I'd have thought that the League would handle **him** themselves. It's more likely that it's something to do with Kahndaq."

"You took down Black Adam easy enough last time."

I frown. "Why would he send us against Adom?"

"He's trying to take over a country."

"He's trying to overthrow a brutal military dictatorship. He hasn't even _said_ that he wants to take over afterwards." It's odd, actually. The Sinai Peninsula has now become a de facto independent country with a newly formed governing council operating out of the city of Shiruta on the peninsula's tip. Adom has shown repeatedly that he easily _could_ tear the government apart manually. I'm really not sure what he's waiting for.

Wallace pats me on the shoulder. "When you've been doing this as long as I have, Oh El, you learn that when a guy with super powers picks a fight with the police in broad daylight, nothing good is gonna happen."

I tap him on the chest with my left hand, putting his costume on him from subspace. My own armour materialises a moment later. When we're not in a rush Robin prefers to sort out his own gear. Kon.. I have actually sort of come up with a work around for Kon's armour but I want to save it for his Christmas present. _Finally_ got around to taking a look at his solar suit and I'm _fairly_ sure I can adapt it for a slightly up-armoured version. Won't let him fly of course and its brilliant white is intrinsic to the design but I _can_ transport it in the ring. I plan to start prototyping later this week, some time after my visit to Sephtian. Bit of a shame I don't have another Kryptonian to try it out on.

"Hey, uh. Y'know, normally? Alan spends Thanksgiving with Jay and Joan. Have you talked to him about it?"

"No. I mean, Thanksgiving's an American thing. I don't really know what's involved and I don't really _feel_ any connection to it." I think for a moment. "You're probably right though, I _should_..."

"Why don't you bring him here?" I look around at M'gann's beaming smile. Wonder why she's so cheerful? "Uncle J'onn doesn't really do anything for Thanksgiving either so Conner and I were going to cook Thanksgiving dinner here."

Kon nods. "I already invited Diana."

"Um, okay. I'll suggest it." He'll probably love it, actually. Seeing what we've done with the place since his last visit and meeting the team. Maybe I could suggest to Artemis and Paula that they might like to come along as well? Does Paula have clearance for something like that? Zatanna.. yeah. Not sure exactly what she's got to be thankful for right now but they don't celebrate it in Italy either. "When is it again?"

Wallace looks at me as if I've said something completely bizarre. "How can you not know-" I create a small Union Jack construct between us. "Oh. Yeah."

"You don't have Thanksgiving in England?"

"No. I always thought of it as a purely American thing but the ring's telling me that several other countries have similar celebrations. My primary school used to get involved in the churches Harvest Festival but I haven't really thought about it since I left. Er, are you going to want me to do anything for it?"

M'gann leans into Kon as he pulls her closer. "We're good, thanks." I keep my face still. He **has** come on in leaps and bounds since we first met but Thanksgiving dinner for a large number of people sounds like a fairly large undertaking. I'll check on the fire extinguishers after the mission.

"Okay, well, if you need _anything_, just ask."

M'gann glances up at Kon as we come around the corner to the training room. "We could use some help getting vegetables." Batman's standing near the main display. He has his personal computer out and appears to be talking to someone. He looks up for a moment and then back to his work.

I nod. "Light speed delivery at your service." Wallace rolls his eyes. "Soil to table in about two minutes over the cooking time."

"I'll make you a list. Of course, we'll need to know exactly who's coming first."

I nod again as we all start straightening up for the Bat-briefing. "I'll get hold of Alan after the briefing."


	46. Page 25

**1st January  
00:20 GMT -4**

I fire and the barrier shatters, gouging a furrow in the floor, walls and ceiling where it intersected with them. My companions race ahead as I try to scan -denied- and send out optic construct sensors. A Crumbler round destroys the double doors just before Kon and Donna reach it. I'm not sure that their cross country speed is any greater than that of the Beresfords but corridors aren't a great place for super strength bounding. There's another arcane barrier blocking the entrance to the laundry room and my Mageslayer destroys it just as easily as the first. Between that and Klarion I'm going to have to try and get Sephtian to make me some more. I'm not at emergency levels yet but I don't want to risk running out in the middle of a fight.

With the barrier and doorway gone I can get a clear look at the laundry room. I can see where the wall was patched over after Kon punched his way through during the failed escape attempt three and a half months ago. Of course, since M'gann had already downed Miss Frost their timetable was up the spout anyway… There are three robed and tattooed cultists kneeling equidistantly apart inside a large magic circle in the empty area of the floor, more or less where I thought it would be. The two guards have been.. posed somehow, standing straight facing each other with their arms pointing forwards, forming an arc. I don't know enough about Indian magic traditions to even attempt to analyse the design.

Several washer dryers have been overturned to provide a degree of cover for two rotary guns and the seven cultists providing protection to the ritual site. They open fire as soon as they see a target. Kon pulls ahead slightly so that he can take the shots on his armour but I wince in sympathy as several rounds strike Donna's more light weight protective gear. Thomas and Tuppence's position at ground level and further back prevents them from drawing fire immediately as I extend a filament to try to strike the guns. It fizzles out on the outer line of the warding circle. I try using a Vertigo Inducer as well only for the cultist to completely ignore it.

The magicians don't look around as my team mates charge in but their chanting does get a little louder. Sounds like some sort of evocation, but I heard the names Shesha and Manasa in there so I doubt they're asking someone to put in a personal appearance. Might just be a mantra prayer to aid their focus with.. whatever they're doing. Kon and Donna take evasive action as Tuppence picks up the washer dryer she was standing behind and hurls it at the closest gun nest. I transition into position next to her and send a Mageslayer round ahead of it, nullifying the ward barrier a moment before it strikes.

"Agh!" / "AIEEGH!"

Oh. They were completely faithful that the barrier would protect them and so didn't bother pulling back. The gun's crushed but… They're not dead at least. Two cultists were manning the gun and while the man bracing it got away with a mere compound fracture of left his arm the woman firing the thing had the full weight of the machine land on her arms before rolling onto her legs and abdomen. I see her hyperventilate, trying to use her ruined arms to push it off. That could well be a fatal injury if we don't get this finished quickly. She's already losing consciousness.

I generate a heavy construct shield as the second rotary gun crew turn their attention to us while in the air Kon and Donna make brute force strikes on the ward shield. It shimmers, strains and then collapses as the rounds striking my shield rip chips out of the far side. Immediately the crew abandon the gun and retreat behind the next ward. Ablative shield wards? A decent delaying tactic I suppose and if those are all separate wards I'm not sure I have enough Mageslayers to shoot through all of them but they don't have anything like enough here to stop Team Fist just punching through.

The cultist with the fractured arm scrambles to his feet and tries to follow his compatriots over the ward line. Fortunately for me he's not wearing a personal ward. ShockCrown, gas and he can live with the arm. I shove him out of the way. Next comes the crippled gunner. Medical scan… Mashed forearms and hands, crushed pelvis and right thigh, squished intestine and right kidney… Right. My team mates start going to town on the next layer of the ward as I close the blood vessels next to the affected areas and lift the washer dryer off her. She's unconscious and her breathing is extremely shallow and.. I'm having motivational problems. The chance of her ever being rehabilitated is just so low that as I see it her getting better would just present new problems.

A flare as the next ward fails and the cultists retreat again. But if she dies it'll be the first person Tuppence has killed. Random violence is one thing but I don't want her internalising 'killing is okay'. I think I might have an opening with her now and I know from Doctor Munro that _she_ isn't a lost cause just yet. Okay, mend the spine, leave the hips. Repair and reattach the severed muscle tissue. Organs next and these are a little more complicated.

The side door to the prison staff part of the prison is pushed open and four more cultists charge out! Bolts from their plasma rifles strike Kon and Thomas. Kon is knocked backwards in the air while Thomas is knocked from his feet, clothes burned from his chest and the flesh beneath blackened and charred.

"Tommy!"

Donna turns aside a couple of bolts sent at her with her bracers. They don't have the force field effect thing that Diana's enchanted versions do but they're thicker than the rest of her armour and can take a few hits. I grab Thomas and float him back behind my construct shield. He groans and tries to sit up. Right, Danner regeneration. I'm not seeing anything life threatening but that probably hurts quite a lot. I suppress his nervous activity in the burned area and then excise the dead tissue. It destroyed a chunk of his skin but failed to penetrate the muscle.

Tuppence throws herself at the barrier between her and the firing cultists while Donna and Kon go evasive. Before she can get her fool self killed I stick construct armour around her and fire another Mageslayer at the last layer of ward between the doorway and us. It goes down in a flash and Tuppence is on them. The first is smacked into the far wall.. with broken ribs and concussion, nothing life threatening. The other three scatter as someone else comes through the door and Tuppence swings at him instead.

Jeffrey Burr turns her arm aside and executes a flawless throw, sending her flying past him. "Oh, how exciting." He takes a second to assess as Donna and Kon swoop down on two of the cultists who hit the floor to avoid Tuppence and steps into the warded area a heartbeat before I can get a filament to him. Tuppence recovers and leaps at him but the ward absorbs her impact. As she falls back he reaches through and grabs her right ankle, causing her to flip over and land on her face. "I see a few familiar faces have turned up to see us off." Okay, yes, he's a highly skilled martial artist. He's still not strong enough to actually hurt any of us. Kon proved that on Santa Prisca.

He steps back apparently unconcerned as Kon and Donna come in again, downing another barrier. I could use another Mageslayer but I'd rather conserve them in the event that something turns up I actually need them for. Right, they can deal with that. Kidney.. done. Intestine next-. Wait, if Burr's here, where's Strange? Ah, I can find him after the scan ward is down. Intestine.. done.

"Did you know that the Cult of the Kobra has branches in nearly every country on Earth?" Another backwards step. "It's amazing how many different cultures revere the serpent. Take the people of Benin for example. I have no time for Christianity or Islam but the Vodunists there have preserved some rather interesting rituals." He glances at the corpse arc. "And since my allies appear to be indisposed…" The three wizards fall on their faces in supplication as I finish work on the cultist's small intestine. Heartbeat.. irregular, but that should stabilise now that her organs are all in place. Burr raises his hands to the ceiling. "Gbi, Li, Liwui, Fa. Grant your fellow snake god your power."

Thomas rises to a crouch as I start firing Mageslayers at the last warded barrier. Too late! Burr's skin grows noticeably scaly and his eyes flash sickly green as some elemental creatures I've never heard of grant him their favour. This apparently is the sign the rest of the cultists have been waiting for as they take out needles of some sort of unhealthy looking red/orange substance and inject it into their arms. Not too sure what that is but-. Muscles bulging: it was Venom. Unfortunate but manageable, they're still far weaker than the other four and a little weaker than my power armour. I aim another Mageslayer at the last ward layer as Kon and Donna back away in anticipation of a rush.

Burr blurs into my scope as I fire, sticks his right hand through the barrier, _catches the round_ and _tosses it aside_. Snake god of speed? The Mageslayers only activate when they strike head on, catching it around the sides does work to bypass the drain effect. He makes eye contact with me and offers me a cold smile. "I don't believe that we met on Santa Prisca. I am Kobra, incarnate god and herald of the inevitable return to the glories of the age of Satya Yuga through the destruction of this corrupt and decadent era."

Monologuers, got to love them. Squashed cultist is now fixed enough that I can shove her to the side of the room before expanding my shield construct into something that surrounds Thomas and I completely. "Hey Jeff." I think his face hardens slightly. The scales make it a bit hard to tell. "I'm Orange Lantern two eight one four. Nice to meet you. Sorry for not introducing myself on Santa Prisca, I was a bit busy drowning Mister Flinders." I frown. "Actually, where is he?"

"Mammoth is busy taking part in the distraction. My liberation is the primary goal of this entire exercise."

"Oh, is _that_ what they told you." He straightens slightly. "Can't help but notice that neither Truggs or Crock are still here. Now, I'd _very_ much appreciate it if you could surrender."

His eyes narrow slightly. _"Take them."_

**1st January  
00:24 GMT -4**

The five remaining cultists blur into movement! Not just Venom, they must have mixed Velocity 9 in as well! I reinforce my personal barrier as Kon, Donna and Tuppence are shoved back against the walls and blows start raining down on the bubble barrier around myself and Thomas. I… Wait. Velocity 9 should be making them Flash fast, at least temporarily. He doesn't quite hit at force equals mass times acceleration but he joined Guy and me for our training session a month or so back and I know what having him punch my barriers feels like. This is… This is _far_ weaker.

Tuppence gets over her initial surprise fastest and swings her right arm across the space occupied by the cultist who doesn't see it coming and is sent flying. Kon just flies straight up to get away while Donna attempts a clinch hold. Thomas looks at me for an idea as very faint cracks start to appear in my barrier. We're over thinking this. If the combination of drugs doesn't kill them they still aren't-. Kon's attacker wall runs and lands a punch on his face. He turns his head with the blow and doesn't seem noticeably injured.

All cultists outside the wards? Good. I extend filaments in all directions and deposit six Vertigo Inducers onto the floor, maximum intensity. Tuppence's first target -broken right arm, collarbone, ribs and dislocated right shoulder- gives up trying to get up, shakes and then vomits across the floor. One of the two who were half way up the wall trying to get at Kon falls to the ground, spasming as 'down' is suddenly in twenty directions at once. The other misses her jump and slams into a wall at near super speed, leaving a crater and being rendered unconscious. Donna finds herself supporting her opponents weight as he more or less collapses on top of her. She's already kneed him in the diaphragm before working out what happened… Ew. I'll clean her armour later.

The two pounding on my bubble careen out of control, trip and collapse, their momentum causing them to bounce and roll some distance. Maybe six Inducers was overkill? I connect filaments to the fallen cultists. I'm not sure exactly what that drug combination would do, but I can purge each individually. And once the protective effect of the Venom is gone, ShockCrowning and gassing them is simplicity itself.

Thomas rises to his feet. Aside from an angry red patch his injury mostly healed. I remove the bubble shield and put construct armour around him as my team resume their ready stance. "Would you be prepared to surrender _now_?"

Burr looks over his fallen subordinates. "Disappointing. Still, bringing about the new era is my sacred r-" He's in my face, his fingers jammed through my construct face plate! "-ole." Thomas swings at him but Burr turns his arm aside, holds it and hits him in the construct faceplate with his left. "The speed of Fa." Thomas takes it and tries to jab with his left. It hits Burr's face, snapping his head back… Then he straightens his neck and looks at Thomas with a faint smile. "The vitality of Gbi." His hand blurs as he hammers punches into his trapped opponent. The construct armour's just about holding but he can't strike back effectively!

Tuppence lunges at Burr to protect her brother and he moves aside with a quiet chuckle. I reseal my construct armour and extend a filament cloud at him. He steps forward and strikes Tuppence in the throat with the blade of his hand as my filaments fail to find purchase. "The protection of Li." Tuppence falls, choking, as Kon and Donna move to surround Burr. I put a filament to Tuppence's throat and undo the damage as Burr effortlessly steps around his attackers, striking at their pressure points. Less effect than he was looking for as their armour proves to be up to the task. I try gassing him but he doesn't stay still long enough and I don't want to risk overdosing the fallen cultists by just pumping the stuff out.

He's keeping moving around my team mates as they try to hit him but doesn't seem to be moving around the space much. Point blank grenade? Point blank grenade. Two detonations cover the area in shrapnel and smoke. He's not hurt but his momentary surprise allows Kon to get a solid shot to the centre of his chest, forcing him back. He stabilises a moment later with no visible injury. "And, most interestingly of all-" I'm being stupid, the gate is still there. Railgun. "-water control from Liwui." He points at me and.. nothing happens. Guess Liwui can't see me either.

Kon and Donna fly at him as I fire the railgun twice, battering down the last two barriers around the foul gateway. "No!" He tries to interpose himself but one of the other things I learned practising against Mister Allen was the value of area denial. I create a construct barrier along my line of fire and shoot a Mageslayer directly at the arcane vortex. I take a moment to process the image of fractures appearing along the barrier as he chases after the round as it heads towards it's target. He fails to get at it. It hits and _oh thank goodness I can scan again_!

Burr looks for an exit as his scales start to recede. Exit not found. Thomas hits him first, a solid right hook to the face which sends him flying backwards. He recovers but he's now even more trapped than before. The wizards appear to be content just to watch the fight but I train a maser construct on each of them anyway. Burr goes for Donna, shoving aside her defence and managing a palm strike to her face before Kon punches him in the side.

He's thrown away from the attack but doesn't look seriously hurt. And that's why super strength versus super strength brawls shouldn't be conducted with striking attacks. On the other hand with his power fading away they just need to keep him off balance and his skill level is still probably higher than theirs.

Tuppence and Thomas run at him. He slides between them, striking at their abdomens. His blows hit but they aren't strong enough to do lasting damage any more and he left himself open to Donna, who gladly takes the clear shot to the back of his head. He stumbles and the siblings turn and punch him hard enough in the stomach to knock him over to me.

"You know-" He leaps up and punches impotently at my construct armour before jumping back. "-my power comes from a snake too. Ophidian the Temptress, Embodiment of Avarice."

Through the rings I can dimly feel the connection to my personal lantern and to the Embodiment within. I feel her awareness extending in my direction. I suppose I shouldn't leave her out. I create a construct body for her just behind me. A large one, about fifteen metres of coils. This room's big enough. I feel my control of it slip away as she takes hold and stares down at the stunned cult leader.

"What's the matter, Kobra god? You were talking yourself up a moment ago. Come on. Muster your soldiers. Call up your gods." I float towards him, orange aura at full intensity. He backs away, not even noticing the filament at his ankles before it trips him. "Hit us!" The Ophidian leans over me and smells him with her tongue. "Fight us!" The Ophidian rears up as I tilt my head slightly to the left. "Give us a hug."

For a moment he looks bewildered, then the Ophidian lunges down, her mouth wide open! "Nooooo!"

"Ah, hey!" Thomas and Tuppence both look more than a little freaked out by the giant snake manifestation, but only Thomas is looking at me.

"Oh, don't worry." The Ophidian construct melts away, revealing Mister Burr on his knees with a glowing orange brand on his forehead. "The Ophidian's not that desperate for servants. Anyone seriously hurt?"

"What the fuck was that thing!?" Tuppence might not have been offended by me apparently killing someone but I suppose a giant snake will put a dampener on anyone's day.

Kon pauses in checking over his armour. "The Ophidian. A giant snake spirit thing that lives in his lantern." He looks at me. "Was that really her?"

"No, just a construct she was remote controlling. Right, you three-" I turn to look at the wizards. "-do you intend to come quietly or do you want a beating first?"

The two at the side look at the one in the middle. "Can Lord Kobra understand us in his current state?"

"Not what I asked."

"We have a message for him. We will surrender peacefully once it is delivered."

I start loading the fallen up onto stretcher constructs. "Oh, go crazy."

His eyes roll back in his head and when he speaks again his voice is different. The pitch is higher and the accent is changed. "Jeffrey Franklin Burr. Compounding your earlier failure to secure an alliance with the Light you have once more been defeated. Even with every advantage at your command you were unable to extricate yourself from the American prison. The only conclusion I can draw is that I was mistaken in my reading of the scriptures, and in identifying you as our saviour. Fortunately there is another who fits the description. Your titles are hereby revoked. You are no longer worthy of the role of Kobra."

He twitches slightly, but I'm careful to dampen down any desires he starts to feel as his body starts to shrivel and his skin darken from his normal green-tinted cream to a more Caucasian hue. Fascinating. I knew that he didn't originally look like that but I had no idea how the change occurred. He shakes as his reversion completes. He looks a great deal more like his brother like this.

I turn my attention back to the wizard. "Who exactly is speaking?"

The wizard turns his sightless eyes on me. "I cannot see you, but I hear your voice. I am the high priestess of the Cult of the Kobra. You may call me… Lady Eve. You will be hearing from me... From the Cult of the Kobra, again."

**1st January  
00:31 GMT -4**

I fly above the armoured prison lorry as it heads for the outer gate at full speed. Smiling, I blink and the rings show me Tuppence and Thomas escorting the remaining prisoners to the men's side cells. There were a few inmates we'd missed but Kon and Donna will have winkled them out before too long. Certainly before the National Guard or anyone like that get here.

"Orange Lantern to Wonder Woman. Belle Reve is secure, though it'll need some rebuilding work. No fatalities in the process, but two guards had been killed by the time we arrived and there are quite a few injuries."

There's some sort of background noise.. and sirens, I think? "Well done. Have you -_uhhf_\- found Strange?"

I look down at the lorry. Mister Crock took the time to find a reasonably well fitting guard uniform before abandoning prison. I can't scan **him** but the lorry was a bit of a giveaway that someone was somewhere they shouldn't be. Given how dark it is and the fact that I'm flying using the belt I don't think he's spotted me. Thinking about it, there's no reason to suppose that he knows **I'm** here at all. Strange is in the passenger seat next to him, looking quite nervous. Kidnapped or retreating in the face of superior force? His fears are further from the surface than I'd have thought they would be if he were unwilling; he **knows** how dangerous Mister Crock is to other squishy people. But, that might just mean that he has good self control.

"Yes." Worth seeing where he's going? No, I shouldn't hang about, I might be needed elsewhere. "I'm about to recover him. How's the fighting going?"

"H**aah**!" For a moment I hear heavy breathing. "Well. We have blocked their movement towards Houma and taken many of the escapees into custody. The rest appear to have scattered."

"Did you end up calling in the Rush Hours?"

"Yes. They have impressed me." I hear a rush of displaced air as she takes off, then the sound filter compensates. "I note that the younger is on your list of possible recruits for the team."

Vasi Kaur, seventeen years of age. Can't imagine why Diana was most interested in the female member of the trio. "Yes, but to be honest I wouldn't recommend approaching her at the moment. She's in the same situation Troia's in with her ex_ams…_"

"Perhaps she could spend some time in the mountain over the summer?"

"Sounds like a good idea to me. Has Nabu had any luck overcoming the scry wards?"

She exhales in frustration. "I haven't been able to reach him. It's unlike him to be-"

"Um." Bollocks. "Did you check secure storeroom B?"

"Why? Was he trying to catalogue objects Savage and the Nazis might have stolen?"

Double bollocks. "Noo sir. You see, I wasn't really sure how long those chains would hold Klarion… I mean, if he really put effort into breaking them. And.. since Nabu was already chained up.. and is the most similar thing to Klarion I had on hand… I left him there." Seems a lot less funny now.

"You… You left him there?"

"Y-eaaah. It will be a very thorough test.. but I appreciate that it's probably not the most efficient use of his time at the moment. Sorry."

I hear a sigh. "We'll talk about it later. How can he be released?"

"Just a simple mechanical lock. The chain's supposed to be immune to direct magic manipulation and it'll use the wearers magic to resist brute force attacks." Silence. "That's actually a new feature with this version, I was actually rather pleased-. I'll just get Strange, shall I?"

"That would be for the best. I will have Kid Flash free Fate."

"Orange Lantern out."

Damn it. I mean, massively warded prison. He might actually have been useful here. I'd rather have John but he's going to be busy either resting or preparing. I still can't touch the corpses making the arch safely. And I felt so good when I shoved him in there too. That's my mellow thoroughly harshed.

I point both hands down at the lorry below me, extrude a couple of filaments and put a flight aura around it, lifting it off the ground. Mister Crock goes for his shotgun immediately while Strange just tenses in surprise. I raise the lorry up higher and turn it around to face me before waving through the front windscreen at the alleged master mercenary. He sticks his shotgun out of the side window one-handed and takes aim at me.

I tilt my head to the left a little and shrug in a 'what-exactly-do-you-think-that's-going-to-do' sort of way. Ah, may as well have a little fun while I still have functioning ears. "Hi, Casey Jones! How you been?"

He sticks out his right arm, loops it around Doctor Strange's neck and reorientates the shotgun so it points at his head. "How much do you want the Doctor alive, cake boy?" I hold my right hand out flat in front of me and wiggle it back and forth. He tries to stare me down. Did… Did he seriously not learn anything from last time? "Well you better make a decision, because if I-"

"Is that an antimatter shotgun?" Just in case, ring? Is it? No, not an antimatter shotgun. Just a regular shotgun with buckshot.

He shoves the gun into the side of the now very scared Doctor Strange's head. "Doesn't need to be antimatter to blow-."

A filament connects me to Doctor Strange and I transition him into the air besides me. "Look! No hands!"

"Whu-?" Doctor Strange flails around in confusion as he tries to work out what just happened.

"Couple of messages, Casey Jones-."

"What did you call me?"

"Casey Jones, because you fight people while wearing a hockey mask and armed with sports equipment. I told Jade about it, she found it hilarious." Boom! The shotgun's pointing out of the window again and he fires on either on pure optimism or pure spite. I let the pellets cause small indents in the orange construct barrier protecting Strange and myself. "Your mum says 'hi', your dad's going to carry on pretending you don't exist-"

"Um, that sort of taunting is not likely to be helpful to Laurence's recovery."

I turn my head to where he floats besides me at a slight forward tilt. "Doctor Strange, I can see people's souls. Trust me when I say that there is no way that he is ever going to be rehabilitated." He really isn't. Solid green structures with orange decoration. I ShockCrown him and transition him to the air on the other side of me.

"Your daughter's comments vary from 'fuck off' to 'fuck off and **die**'. I think Jade's actually going to make a go of going straight this time." There's a tiny sliver of red but it isn't even slightly close to breaking free and influencing his behaviour."Paula's healed up nicely… Not that she's going to be visiting _you_. _**Ever**_."

It's larger than the sort of object I usually do this to, but the lorry is just about small enough that I can put it into subspace.

"I-I really don't think-"

A flicker of blue as I continue to ignore him. "You should really watch that hope, Doctor. It's suspicious."

"Whatever do you mean by that?"

"The League's been focusing on the supervillains, but they'll be turning their attention to the disappearing guards soon enough. And since Wonder Woman's on the case, they'll be truth lassoed. And so will you. Something to think about while you're waiting for Waller to get here to witness it."

**1st January  
00:43 GMT -4**

"Now you stay there, Casey Jones, and you think about what you've done." I slide shut the cell door behind Mister Crock and dismiss the heavy restraint constructs before turning to Doctor Strange.

"Why ever have you put my staff in the cells?"

"Because this situation reeks of inside involvement and I can't tell exactly who was involved."

"That is _completely_ unnecessary. While you **may** be right about.. the involvement of some members of staff, surely they would have fled as soon as the break out started?"

"Unless they wanted us to think that." Still, with the wards in the prison non-functional and with them not wearing scry protection themselves… I look over to the control room and nod at Abra. "Abra, open the doors to the staff cells."

He nods and there's a clunk as their door disengage. Doctor Strange looks at him and grimaces. "And putting prisoners in charge. I know you've been meeting with Abra and Thomas, but what were you thinking?"

"I was thinking, 'isn't it odd how all but one of the staff still here were Warden Waller's original hires while none of the ones who absented themselves are?'."

"That's… **Highly** circumstantial."

I nod. "True. But at the very least it suggests there's been a fairly major problem with your vetting processes." The staff start to leave their cells. Bendemann regards me levelly for a moment then his eyes narrow when he sees his boss. A couple of the guards take a moment to get a better look at the not-a-plasma-elemental while Doctor Quinzel-

"Doc!"

-beelines directly for Doctor Strange, a broad smile on her face.

"Doctor Quinzel, I'm so glad that you-." She throws her arms around him and puts her head on his shoulder. For a moment he looks as though he doesn't know what to do, starting to return the hug only as she starts to pull back.

"I thawt Kobra were gonna kill you fer shuwer."

"Fortunately, Jeffrey wanted me alive as a hostage."

I look down at the ground floor as Donna and Kon drag in the last few holdouts and lead them to their cells. Jeffrey hasn't moved since I put him in the cell and removed the brand. I tried asking him a few questions but it looks like yanking the 'Kobraness' out of him has messed up his head to the point where he can't respond even if he wants to. How much of what he did was actually _him_? I barely remember him from the comics at all, except that he got killed by Adom's group before they took Kahndaq by force. Was he a cult leader with super powers or just some guy that 'Lady Eve' woman thought fit the requirements of their holy texts? Did she ensorce him, or did the physical alterations come with the job?

"Hey, ah, Paul?" I look around as Thomas comes up the steps. "Not that ah'm eager or anythang, but… Looks lahk y'all about finished here. You need me an' Tuppy to git back in our cells?"

Doctor Strange nods. "Thank you Thomas, I really think that might be for the b-."

"No." Strange jerks his head in my direction before looking down and exhaling slightly. "I'll need you on hand when the Justice League and the National Guard start bringing the escapees back here."

"Orange Lantern, may I remind you that I am the Warden of this facility. Thomas, Tuppence and Abra have-."

"I have a signed executive order that says otherwise." I shrug. "Sorry Doctor Strange, but when something like this happens the person in charge has to be removed while the investigation takes place. You remember, like what happened with Warden Waller."

"Well, I… Yes, I thought I might have time to…" He shake his head to clear it. "Who..? Is in charge of Belle Reve now?"

"Waller's restoration to her former role is being expedited, but at the _moment_ the senior member of staff on site is Assistant Deputy Warden Bendemann."

Bendemann looks around when he hears his name and starts walking over. "Does that mean you're likely to listen to me?"

"Up to a point, yes. If there's anything you want to say that might encourage me to accept **your** innocence..?"

He holds my gaze for a moment and then nods. "I've been keeping in touch with Waller. She should be able to vouch for me."

Strange's eyes widen. "William, that was completely unprofessional! Not to mention a-a criminal offence! I strongly recommend that you don't say anything else until you've spoken to a lawyer."

"Two of my guys are dead, Strange. Screw lawyers."

"They were my people too! Do you think I don't care?"

"Bendemann, I **will** have to testify to anything I hear."

"Charley DuPrit and Abel Ardoin. The two guys I had getting close to your new hires."

"Well… I… Clearly, _some_ of the people I…" Doctor Quinzel pulls away from him. "Oh, for all we know they drove my people away to use as hostages later."

"They told me they saw snake tattoos on at least three of them."

More accusing eyes are turned in Strange's direction. He takes in the hostility and goes to speak before deciding better of it. He takes a moment to collect himself. "You've clearly made up your mind. I'm not going to say anything else until I've spoken with counsel."

Kon and Donna float back up to our level and take in the scene. Diana's busy so an immediate truth lassoing is out of the question. Branding's even less likely to result in something we can use in court. Heck, even **I** wouldn't want to rely on it like that and I'm the bloke who **does** it. But if we still have time to stop whatever's left of this plan we really need any information we can get. "Yes, because superheroes are known for their conformity with the niceties of due process. Abra! Have you got to the section on Atlantean witness testimony procedures?"

He smiles slightly and raises his wand, teleporting himself across the short distance from the guard station to the landing. "I think I could come up with something."

Strange is trying to back away but there really isn't anywhere for him to go. "This is a violation of my rights! And it will certainly prevent any court hearing any charges you may wish to bring in the future!"

"Actually, it doesn't. Magic derived testimony is only legally equivalent to hearsay evidence in the US, even if actual juries tend to treat it as being more important. Neither Abra or I are police officers or prison wardens. As long as I have reasonable suspicion that you're involved in something likely to endanger Human life there's a surprising amount of leeway in what courts will accept." Orange manacles attach to his legs and arms, locking him in place. "Abra, quite a lot is riding on you getting this right."

"Oh, please." He points his wand at the floor of the landing. "The Atlanteans have refined this spell to near perfection." Pulses of a diffuse blue plasma drop from the tip of his wand and burn the required sigils and markings into the metal. "Even a neophyte such as I could hardly miscast it. I take it that you have also studied the rules concerning witness questioning?"

"Of course. Ready?" Abra nods. Strange is visibly sweating now and tries to pull against his bonds. "First question. Doctor Hugo Strange; were you willingly and actively involved in assisting inmates in escaping Belle Reve Penitentiary?"

He's shaking, his mouth shuddering as he tries to prevent himself from speaking. An Atlantean jury would probably convict on that alone. "Yes." His eyes widen, then dart to the prison workers he's betrayed.

"Second question. Doctor Hugo Strange; did you attempt to encourage prison officers to leave Belle Reve so that you could replace them with people willing to assist you in activity relating to the first question?"

"Yes."

"Third question. Doctor Hugo Strange; to the best of your knowledge what was the purpose of the ritual Kobra's magicians were performing?"

"It was s-s-supposed to be a long range transportation spell of some kind. It also created a protective effect over the whole of the prison."

"Fourth question. Doctor Hugo Strange; to the best of your knowledge, why didn't the transportation effect work?"

"Someone was supposed to be on the other end to complete the circuit. For some reason that didn't happen."

"Fifth question. Doctor Hugo Strange; to the best of your knowledge, who was that person?"

His mouth goldfishes, the inscriptions in the circle starting to shine to increase the force of the compulsion. "Klarion."

From the looks of the guards I'd say that he didn't so much sign his own death warrant as build his own scaffold. And most of the prisoners listening below don't look a lot happier about it. "Thank you, Doctor Strange. That will be all."

**1st January  
01:01 GMT -4**

"And that, Mister Phillips, is why we don't pick fights with anyone with an 'S' on their chest."

He sits up a little straighter and tries wiggling the fingers of his newly repaired right hand. "Yeah, I think I'll remember that. And yet _still_ not as tough a crowd as the eight year olds on Coney Island."

"You know, if you're interested, I could probably find a buyer for that xenotech cache you and your wife found."

He looks puzzled. "Ah, I don't get it."

"Get what?"

He leans forwards and makes a circling motion with his right hand. "You know. The punch line. Why is Jewelee and I selling out to you funny?"

Rapidly losing hope… "How's about 'unrepentant supervillain makes pile of money from someone else's work and retires in a cloud of smug'?"

He exhales slowly as he thinks about it. Then he shakes his head. "Nahhh… It's missing something."

Well, I tried. "I don't have your comedic expertise. Maybe you could work on it?"

"Sure. I mean, there's definitely _some_ potential there. Maybe if we sold the same thing to different people..?"

I step back and wave my right hand to close the cell door. Xenotechnology advanced enough to make joke weapons a serious threat and **no one** knows where they got it from or who the original owner was. _They're_ clearly not in it for the money but… Oh well. Jewelee gave pretty much the same answer when I asked _her_. At least **he** didn't try cupping me. My power armour meant that I didn't feel anything and I only noticed when the inmates on the other side of the cellblock started jeering. My frantic back peddling actually got a laugh out of Tuppence so at least it wasn't a pointless humiliation.

One last person to talk to before Waller gets here and he's in the next cell along with Doctor Ojo. Ojo's still here because the destruction of the power suppression system apparently damaged his cybernetics at the same time and he didn't fancy trying to navigate the bayou in the dark with his vision glitching in and out. Ojo doesn't bother looking around as I appear in front of their cell door but the man I'm here to see looks around and sneers at me. "What? I _know_ STAR Labs got **my** stuff."

"I know. That's where I came across it. Thing is, Mister Tuttle… I'm a huge fan."

"Fuck _you_."

"No, seriously. I've been using Crumble based equipment since early September. It works **great**. I mean-" I take a Crumbler railgun round out of subspace and hold it up. "-I use these with my railgun constructs, they destroy pretty much anything. I made these-" I take an Arrow of Unmaking out as well and have it float in front of the cell doors. "-for my bow-using colleagues. Your Crumble gear is _shockingly_ underutilised-."

He leaps to his feet and lunges at the bars. "You stole my designs!"

"No, the courts confiscat-."

"You total shit! Do you know what I went through to make that stuff work!?"

Um. "Doctor Quinzel did give me _some_ id-""

"You! You! You! I'll KILL YOU!" I take a couple of steps back. "You and the green one and all of the fucking Arrows!" He's now shaking on the bars in a determined attempt to bring the bars down. "I'LL KILL YOU ALL!"

Nullify sound.

Doctor Quinzel walks up besides me. "Coulda told you that would happen."

"I knew he was a bit temperamental, but…"

"You know about him and his dad, roight?" I nod. "His whole ego's tied up in his invention bein' good fer somethin'-"

"But I.. proved that it is?"

"-but at the _same time_ he's gotta be the one provin' it. You showed him his tech was good, but because it was **you**, you made it look t' him like **he** was the problem."

I look at Mister Tuttle where he's still silently screaming at me. Ojo's covered his ears with his hands. "He.. sort of _is_."

"Weeeell…" She looks at him and then half turns away. "Maybe. He was actually on the borderline for goin' to a secuwah hospital insteada here. But straight up tellin' them doesn't help."

Mister Tuttle appears to give up and one last snarl at me throws himself back down to where he'd been sitting on the floor."Yeah. Guess I'd got used to it being a bit easy."

"Ahhh… Oh! I wanted to ask you somethin'."

"Yes?"

"Well, durin' our sessions Tommy and Tuppy both mentioned being in contact with a 'Doctor Munro'?" I nod. "They both seemed to be respondin' really well t' him but I noticed that his name was only on the visitor register that one time. You think there's any chance he could come in fer another visit?"

"He lives and works in India… I suppose I could bring him over here if he had time. He'd definitely be up for some sort of video conference though." She nods and smiles. "I'll talk to him. How.. are you holding up?"

She looks away and takes a deep breath before slowly letting it out. "Oh, y'know. My mentor, the guy who got me the job in Arkham and then _specifically_ asked fer me when he took over here turns out to be a massive stoopid criminal jerk who's working with the largest mass murderer on the face of the Earth and it turns out that he only gowt me the job because he thinks I'm 'easily manipulated by powerful and charismatic male authority figures'."

She's starting to tear up. I cautiously put my right hand on her left shoulder. "Okay, well-."

"I mean, what is this, the fifties? An' the guards don't say anythin' t' me but even though I'm the only one of his new people who didn't run when it all stawted, they all think I was in on it. I _liked_ Charley, I thoughwt we were friends, an' it turns out he was only tawkin' t' me to get the scoop on the Doc." She bows her head slightly and wipes her eyes with her right hand before pulling herself together and raising her head to look back at me. "But other than that, pretty good."

"Um..."

"I think you made a real break through with Tuppy tonight." She looks up at where Tuppence and Thomas are leaning on the landing banister. "She's actually been tawkin' t' me and she usually hates doin' that." She pauses. "Well, she said a couple a' words at least."

"And what do you think about Abra?"

She looks up at where the Elemental is still floating over our heads. "Couldn't be happier. I think he's actually looking forward t' getting back to his cell so he can go through that database." For a second her smile reappears. "You think Waller will really be okay with his implants stayin' own?"

"I don't really know." Comic Waller wouldn't be. This one? Maybe. Depends on how she's feeling about my assistance."Maybe if we-."

There's a blinding flash of golden light! Coming from an ankh shape. Wonderful. Nabu appears on the landing near the control room, along with Waller and a squad of heavily armed people in full tactical armour. Waller herself has a flak jacket and a pistol. Nabu appears to just be gazing forwards but numerous golden sigils float around him. I record them as he points his arms forwards and fires a stream of golden ankhs into the Elemental, destroying it completely as Abra has his wand snatched and his arms forced behind his back by a couple of the soldiers.

Bendemann starts heading towards Waller and gets a rifle shoved in his face for his trouble. He raises his hands and makes a silent appeal to his boss. She nods and the gun gets lowered. She then looks down at me and makes a sideways motion with her head. Right. Better get this sorted out then.

**1st January  
01:11 GMT -4**

Waller picks up the nameplate with Doctor Strange's name on it from the Warden's desk and looks at it for a moment. "Hm_pf_." She then walks around the side of the desk and negligently tosses it into the bin on her way to her newly reclaimed seat. Two of the soldiers she brought with her have taken up station on either side and another two are standing outside the door to the office. Nabu didn't bother saying anything to me about his stay in the storage vault. He just did something to bind the Bestowed -apparently that's the proper name for Kobra wizards- and then headed off to deal with the macabre gate thing. The last thing we need is Klarion using it to come **here**.

Bendemann's standing on my left and looking mildly pleased with the situation. "What's next Warden?"

"The first truckload of escaped prisoners should be here in about an hour, hour and a half. How much of the prison can we have safe by then?"

He and I look at each other for a moment. "I can have all the internal walls fixed… Probably the power suppression system."

"We're going to be mighty short staffed, sir."

She waves her right hand. "I've got a mess of DC pencil pushers tracking down everyone who worked for me before Strange took over. Should get a whole heap of them back by this time tomorrow. In the mean time, liaise with Major Gadison for whatever you need. After a stunt like this they can't complain about being kept in their cells all day." Bendemann nods.

"Warden Waller, my Praexis… _Constructs_ are just about clever enough to obey simple instructions. And they can't die. Might be worth assigning them to the soldiers."

She nods. "At the Major's discretion." I close my eyes for a moment as I reach out through the orange light to Fatty and his offspring, instructing them to follow the soldiers around. "Now. Quinzel."

"Far as I can tell she's completely genuine. Everyone else Strange hired is gone."

Waller raises her eyebrows slightly and looks to Bendemann for confirmation.

"I… It's suspicious as hell, but we never got anything on her." He shrugs.

Waller nods at me. "You're probably right." She takes hold of the radio attached to front of her shoulder and presses the 'talk' button. "You can let Quinzel out of the cell but she stays **inside** of Belle Reve."

"Yes, Warden."

I thought that putting her back in a cell was a little harsh, but I suppose I can see where Waller was coming from. At least she didn't follow through on her initial impulse to stick her in one of the isolation cells along with Burr and Strange.

Waller makes eye contact with the two of us. "Does she have a future here?"

Bendemann tilts his head to the side. "Even if she wasn't in on it, I don't know how comfortable I'd be keeping her around anyway."

"How many other people are you going to get applying for the job now? Particularly with a relevant background."

"When Strange applied he was one of three I thought were worth interviewing. Now… You're probably right. She can stay for now, I'll think on it later."

"Warden, can we talk about-."

"Kadabra and the Terrors." She locks onto me with steely eyes. "What exactly did you think you were doing giving convicts free range in my prison?"

"They already had free range. The Beresfords used that freedom to take down nine other inmates and protect a member of staff and Kadabra was also quite helpful in securing the place. Mister Fisher made himself useful as well. At the very least they're going to need to be housed separately from the other prisoners."

"Are you really trying to tell me that you couldn't have taken care of business without them?"

"The three of us.. probably could have done. But the risks would have been greater, especially for the remaining guards. And Quinzel would almost certainly have been killed."

Bendemann nods. "Strange was trying to get the kids transferred out of here and they were both engaging with the education program. And he's right about them mixing with the other prisoners, there's no way that would be safe."

Waller leans forwards slightly, puts her elbows on the desk and massages her forehead with her right hand. "You just love making work for me, don't you? And Kadabra? From the way Fate reacted I'm guessing that was a real live magic creature and not one of his usual holograms."

"That was the deal I made for his cooperation."

"You _know_ Belle Reve isn't set up to handle magic users. Hell, you pointed it out when we met in DC! I'm going to have to talk to the Atlantean ambassador about getting those Kobra wizards transferred as it is!"

"Kadabra's been a model prisoner for as long as he's been here. And.. we _might_ be able to improve your facilities so you **can**handle them, I'll need to talk to my Atlantean contacts first."

"We aren't going to have time for them to mess around putting spells on the whole building. I'm not even sure that's _legal_."

"In Louisiana? Er, religious blessings and evocations aren't. But we've developed a type of chain that drains and confines magic power and I don't.. **think** it breaks any laws. They'd have to wear it all the time but I think that would be covered by the exemption you already have for the collars."

"You got one here now?"

"Sorry, no. Mine's in use-" I don't know where the one Kon put on Nabu ended up, though I wouldn't put it past him to have destroyed it as soon as he was freed. Adom wasn't carrying his with him when he left but that might be just about anywhere by now. "-but the League might have a couple they could spare."

"That's it? Three?"

"They're a recent development and.. quite resource intensive to produce. There's… There are lesser versions but they're not exactly easy to move around in."

"Look at my face and ask if that worries me."

It appears that it doesn't. I nod. "Rightyoh. Is there anything else?"

"One last thing. Apparently Strange said that he was working with Klarion. Do you have some way to stop _**him**_ if he comes looking for his partner in crime?"

"Klarion's been… Stopped. For the moment at least."

She straightens up. "What? Why hasn't the League shouted it out to the world?"

"It happened about six hours ago and we're still not sure exactly what happened to him. We wouldn't want to announce his death only for him to turn up a few months later."

"I suppose not." She waves her left hand at us. "Okay, dismissed. I need Belle Reve up and running as soon as possible."

Bendemann and I turn to leave but before we reach the door Nabu pushes it open from the other side. His helmet orientates on me. "You."

"Nabu. Have you cleared up the mess in the laundry room?"

"It has been made safe. The bodies may now be removed." I nod. "Wonder Woman has told me that you designed the chains as a way of confining Klarion. I did not believe that to be possible but you have surprised me before. I trust that you have all of the experimental data that you need. I have no interest in taking part in another test."

"Unless you know where I can find another Lord of Chaos, that's about as tested as I can make it. I appreciate your cooperation."

Mister Zatara's stolen eyes narrow at me through the Helmet's vision slits. "The first group of prisoners will arrive shortly. I suggest that you attend to your work."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

**1st January**  
**07:17 GMT -4**

I smile as Deva slams into the asphalt just in front of me. She tries to raise her head then slumps back to the ground, unmoving. In my own arms Doctor Desmond redoubles his efforts to escape my own hold, and I respond by pushing harder.

"GAAAAAGHH!"

With a cracking sound his right thumb snaps and he suddenly seems less inclined to flee. I turn to look at Barda as she walks towards her fallen opponent. "See? Isn't this more fun than the two of us duking it out in some tiny, sweaty gym?" "Tell me you're not enjoying this."

"It certainly does less harm to their insurance premiums." "It has a.. certain satisfying quality to it."

Doctor Desmond tries to push himself up again. I know that he's feeling pain, he wouldn't be crying out if he wasn't. Why on Earth is he continuing to fight me when he's so clearly lost? I shift my hold and apply pressure, bending his right wrist sideways and-

"YYAAAGH!"

-snapping several bones. This is a fascinating study in leverage, actually. He's quite a bit larger than I was at my largest and has much greater reach. Confining myself to physical attacks -because there'd be no challenge at all to it otherwise- I had trouble getting within grappling range. Heh, as an unfortunate Chevrolet bore witness when it cushioned my landing. The blow didn't _hurt_ at all but it was easily strong enough to overcome the friction between my feet and the road surface. Note to self; next time don't let the sister in law bait you into a 'no weapons' playthrough.

"Just knock him out." "Torturing a defeated enemy isn't very heroic."

"It's not that easy." "Different strokes…"

"RAAARH!"

"I can't shift my hold without risking him knocking me away again, and even if I could he's got basically no neck. I'd have to crush a good chunk of his upper chest to throttle him. I don't think he feels pain like a normal human so _that's_ out. I said no weapons so gas is out. I suppose I could gouge out his eyes-"

"AAAAGHH!"

"-or something but I'm not sure even that would work."

"You've already taken longer than **I** did."

"I haven't focused on hand-to-hand combat training, alright? This is your strongest skill set and my weakest. See how well you get on with a flipping _power ring_."

This is getting embarrassing. A crowd who _really_ should know better than to hang around at the edge of a super fight are creeping back into the periphery of my vision and, _ahh__**gh**_, they're taking their phones out to record it. And it looks like I'm torturing a beaten man. Come on, how can I… **Ah**! Fire hydrant, one of those convenient American ones that stick out of the ground. Destruction of public property… Oh, they live in a swamp. They can't be short of water.

I stamp down heavily on Doctor Desmond's left little toe-

"rrRRRRHH!"

-and move my left arm to grab his right thigh and _lift_ him up onto my shoulders. Excellent. Any move he tries to make will result in him trying to use bits I've already dislocated or broken. Or both. There's no way, _ehh_, he can bring enough force to bear to break free and.. if I.. walk closer to the hydrant.. shift my grip and swing him around by his leg like the proverbial _cat_…

"DA**HH**!"

Hydrant upright damaged and highly pressurised water spurting forth. Slam Desmond into the ground, move my hold to his right shoulder where the compound fracture is-

"EHHG_blgblgblgblg_."

-and force his mouth and nose into the stream. Whatever chemical changes have taken place in his body he certainly still needs to breathe.

"Creative."

I shake my head and shove him forwards a bit further. "Hardly." His free arm flails around but his own bulk is working against him.

"Who's next on the list?"

"Snart. Hardly requires both of us, I'd be astonished if he's had the time or resources to throw a cold gun together yet."

"Do you have his location?"

Ring? "Yes, he's in…" Oh, come on!

"Where?"

"Conn's Home Plus, which stocks an extensive range of home electronic equipment. Alright, he's got a cold gun." From the way Desmond is jerking I'd guess that he's run out of air. His lungs have quite a decent volume but he burns through it faster than a normal Human and had no chance to take a breath before I thrust him into the stream. A few moments more…

Behind us I hear the collection lorry pull up. With the main power suppression unit destroyed they're reduced to using the stand alone collars and their limited battery life. I have a couple in subspace but using them would invalidate the challenge. Barda slings Deva over her shoulder and carries over to them for transport. Desmond's starting to go limp. Ordinarily I'd judge this by scanning his brain with the ring. As it is I'm forced to utilise my sadly neglected 'god sense'. Grayven… **I'm** the God of Conquest. Is Desmond conquered yet? Feels like… Yes. I haul him back out of the water and drag him in the direction of the transport vehicle. One of the soldiers holds out an extra large collar and I take it with my right hand and affix it to where Doctor Desmond's neck used to be before slinging him through the lorry's open rear door.

The corporal nods at me. "Thank you, sir, ma'am. We'll get these two back to Belle Reve as quick as we can."

"Good show. Carry on." He nods and turns away to get in the drivers seat as one of his colleagues closes the rear door. Maybe Lantern Stewart will have the place usable by the time they get there. In a rather amusing turn of events with much of the League not fully fit a good deal of the work of chasing down runners has been left to our team while _they_ attacked and made safe the prison. Jeffrey Burr, aka 'Kobra' escaped with a group of cultists through some sort of magic portal shortly before they arrived and the rest of the inmates had a good go at wrecking the place when they realised that they weren't on the 'approved for escape' list. From the grim tone of Wonder Woman's voice I'm going to assume that there were fatalities amongst the staff.

I restore the hydrant as Barda takes out her mega rod and puts her thumb to the activator. Really wish she'd let me tweak that recalcitrant Mother Box of hers a little. Just.. open it's mind a little bit. Connect it to the Sphere… Agh, should have thought of that before! The Sphere should be able to talk it around! Shaking my head in frustration at my own mental sloth I walk over to Barda and put my hands on her shoulders for transport. Turns out New Gods are much less touch shy than Englishmen but since this does actually require a physical connection I've compromised this far. There's a blast of light as we vanish and reappear in the Conn's car park. The front doors have been smashed in and I see that the car carrying the police first responders has been hit by a ice gun, the two police officers taking cover behind it. Their heads jerk up as we stride past.

"Do you think he will try to fight?"

I nod. "Almost certainly."

"Can his weapon harm us?" I stop just in front of the doors and take a close look at the brickwork and the thin line of frost that runs around the floor, walls and ceiling of the antechamber. Clever. From the amused curl on Barda's lips I'm going to guess that she hasn't spotted it. "Are you that worried?"

"Justifiably cautious." I crouch down and pick up a piece of debris, then stand and toss it over the threshold. There's a flash of white as the freeze trap triggers, water vapour from the air turning to ice and the brickwork I threw flash-freezing before landing hard and shattering. "They're not _all_ stupid."

**1st January**  
**07:22 GMT -4**

Joy of joys, she decided that I could lead the way. Bedroom furniture to the right of me, living room furniture to the left. Electronics is.. left and onwards a bit?

"I understand that he developed the technique to fight the Flash. Reduce molecular vibration in a particular area to zero.. or close enough. The Flash runs through it and suddenly he isn't moving at superspeed any more."

Can't see anyone from here. Would he run? No, doesn't fit his profile. Not if he could lure either Mister Allen or Wallace out.

"He can build such a device using parts taken from household appliances?"

"He's a very intelligent man. No formal higher education either. He worked out the operating principles by personal study, stole the components and built his first cold gun himself."

"Surely such a technology is worth more than he can steal with it?" "Does he use it to destroy because that is his god-role?"

"Dear sister-in-law, I realise that you've only been on Earth for nine years, but one thing you'll come to understand is that there are people here who are shockingly brilliant at their chosen field -near equals of any New God- who are none the less completely rubbish at applying that brilliance in a rational way." Televisions, no… Ah, a gutted microwave. Getting closer, though it looks like it was torn apart. Odd. He's usually more careful than that. "Leonard Snart, genius cryonics physicist and engineer, uses his cold gun to rob banks. Robbing a bank is a poor enough prospect when the heist is well planned. Running in through the front doors in a easy to identify costume, a novelty weapon and no escape route?" I shake my head. "And he's hardly the only one. Where Gotham has insanity Central City has really **stupid** geniuses. I'd call them idiot savants were it not for the fact that many of them have quite good social skills." "You may be on to something there, but if so it isn't built in to his soul. It's in the structures of his mind that the idea he **must** be a certain way exists."

"A strange way to exist."

"H**mm**." "Welcome to the Fifth World."

**That** gets a look. "You mean to say-?"

"Werl look what we got here, Tuppy!" Thomas Beresford strolls out from the computer games section and cracks his knuckles. "I wuz getting' t' thinkin' we'd be here all day 'fore anyone showed up."

Looks like he's taken the time to change his clothes from prison orange to something a little more like his 'costume'. Black combat trousers and a white t-shirt. He appears to have forgone his signature padlock around the neck and I guess Conn's don't stock braces. Or maybe he just got bored looking at clothes and the possibilities of having a power supply and top of the range games machines on hand just got too appealing.

Tuppence walks in from the around the side of the outer display stands, slush puppy in hand, cold and hard eyes scanning us as she takes a slurp. "I dunno Tommy. I don't recognise 'em. You sure they're heroes?"

Oh goodness me, it's going to be like fighting Team Rocket. "I think I ate a hero once."

This appears to throw Thomas off his stride. "Wait, fer real? We're kinda new at this."

"Of course for real. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti." "And sometimes just stupid stupid."

He screws up his face. "Aw man, that's gross! What tha hell you do that fower?"

"It's a quote, Tommy. That creepy British guy says it in Silence o' tha Lambs." She takes another slurp, realises that it's empty and tosses it aside. No manners at all. "An' I **do** recognise him. He wuz helpin' out Wonder Woman aftah that thing with the kids disappearin'."

"No good deed ever goes unpunished. Why are you hanging out with Mister Snart?"

"He's takin' us under his wing. Helpin' us make connections with other supervillains." Thomas actually looks happy about the situation. Really. Even Mahkent Senior… Even _**Brickwell**_ would have been a better choice of role model. At least they **run**organisations.

Barda crouches slightly. "Why are we still talking?"

Thomas looks at her and then at me. "You brung yer sister along too?"

I shake my head and wave my right hand dismissively. "Sister-in-law. My brother was busy." Ring, scan for medical purposes.

By your command.

Oh, that's interesting. Some sort of chemical in every living cell in their bodies. I.. don't recognise it, but the situation suggests that it's the source of their unusual vitality. I'll add it to the research slate. "They, dear Barda, are still talking because Snart's up to something. I'm still talking because-" I tap the left bracer of my armour to activate the Garrick infuser. "-I want-" There's a slight hiss as it takes effect. "-to-" I cross the space between myself and Thomas at what feels like a jogging pace while around me everything slows to a crawl. At glacial speed Tuppence starts to raise her hands to a simple guard. I can watch in slow motion as Thomas' eyelids come down in a blink that probably takes him only a fraction of a second.

And then his right arm's bent up behind his back with my right hand at his wrist and my left around his neck and squeezing. "-catch them off guard."

"H-!?"

"Tommy!"

He bends his legs to try to jump and I respond by lifting him off the ground by his own neck. Tuppence dives at us but gets punched right in the diaphragm by Barda. She folds up around the blow, a look of total shock on her face for a moment. Barda pulls back, grabs the back of Tuppence's head with her right hand and slams her face into her oncoming left fist. Ah, ambidexterity. Tuppence blearily tries to focus on her attacker so Barda repeats the blow. Thomas is striking my armour with his legs and left arm but it's far easier to prevent a man sized target from getting leverage and my armour can takes this easily.

"I didn't know you could move like that."

"Short bursts only." And that's true. I tried dosing myself with it but it turns out that after a few seconds my New God physiology just reverts any changes. Great for short bursts but useless for strategic purposes. "Hey, Thomas? You know what's funny?"

"khkhkhkhkhkh."

"Didn't actually know you were here. Plus, there's an amusing symmetry between your upbringing and Mister Snart's. Your father left permanently when you were… Nine, wasn't it? His mother left when he was the same age. Of course, in his case that was because his father was beating her-."

A sizzling sound and I swivel to interpose Thomas between myself and the freeze ray. Behind his goggles Mister Snart scowls at me. "That's about enough of that." As expected, he started with temperatures that would be painful but not lethal to a baseline Human. Thomas' chest gets coated with ice before the beam from the rifle-sized weapon cuts off. "Human shield. Classy." Snart pulls some sort of lever so I reach aside, pick up a display stand and throw it at him. He dodges, but the freeze trap he set up is wasted. Another thrown stand and he has to dive for the floor, allowing me to score a direct and disarming hit with a thrown Thomas. The ice covering him shatters on impact but he was barely conscious anyway. Snart just about manages to keep hold of his weapon with one hand but I'm already moving towards him before he can bring it to bear. "Vertigo, now!"

The sensation of nausea which follows is far weaker than what I detected him using in the bayou. I may not have the ring's protection at present but divine aura and the divine protective fortifications of my Apokoliptian armour reduce it to far below the level it would need to be at to disable me. I grab a widescreen plasma television from a wall stand and thrust it forwards to block a hastily aimed freeze ray then I jab my hand into Snart's stomach.

"_Bowagh!_"

Supervillain number four has done his best with Conn's wares to match his preferred classy apparel but fell somewhat short. He's now backing away from me slowly while frantically trying to retune his cobbled together Vertigo Inducer to a wavelength that will affect me. "Give it up, Vertigo."

With a barely suppressed snarl he lowers his hands to his side. "That's **Count** Vertigo, peasant."

"No it isn't. Didn't you hear? Your title's been revoked. Cancelled. Made extinct and invalid. And… Not that I'm one for nepotism, but I **am** the son of the ruler of the planet Apokolips. My name is Prince Grayven…" I appear to consider for a moment. "**Peasant**. But you may address me as Your Highness."

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

**1st January  
Uuuuuughh**

Alert!

Huh, what? I jerk awake and start trying to pull my arms free of the duvet.

Connection made to monitored telephone line.

I stop, sagging back under the duvet.

Location: second public telephone, BP, Happy Harbour branch.

Oh, for goodness sake. I've had… Ring, time?

Thirteen twenty two GMT minus four.

Four and a half hours sleep. All of my friends are asleep as well… Oh. Okay, Zatanna isn't, and Holly and Karon aren't… Need to talk to Zatanna about that. I wiggle up into an upright position. Still wearing my old pyjamas. Nice thing about the ring; it keeps me at a comfortable temperature no matter what duvet I have on. I find it much easier to sleep with something heavy on top of me and now I can have a thick winter duvet in the middle of summer. Or in a climate controlled mountain base.

And now I'm awake, darn it.

"Ring, who is it?"

"Speaker has identified themselves as Nylor T-"

_I'm yanking back sheets and hurrying to get off the bed_! "Track him!"

-uggs. Unable to comply."

I just manage to get my feet on the floor without falling over before stopping to stare at the obstinate jewellery. "Why the heck not?"

"Trace terminates at a junction box in Metropolis." I get an image of the box in question. Wires, more wires and.. a space I can't see. "Unable to follow further." Something magical. I can tell it's there because it's interrupting my sight of the things around it. Ugh, I'll pick whatever it is up later but there's not a lot to be gained by rushing.

I hold out my right hand and call the Stewart-ring from the dressing table. "You got anything to add?"

"Analysis of the area surrounding the target shows several other probable locations for communication relays utilising similar stealth technology."

I do not **need** this right now! What does he even want to talk to me about? I _know_ he got away! He **knows** I know! I sigh, then hold the left ring up to my ear. "Answer."

"-what it is yer doing _now_. So, _**aaaa**_nyway-"

Some sort of birdsong in the background… No, the ring says it's a recording.

"-I wanted to ask-"

"Truggs, I was asleep. If you're going to be a criminal you could at least try not being an _arsehole_."

"Oh, hey **Paul**. I was wondering-"

"What? **What**? What do you want?"

"Hey, I don't know what you've got to complain about. **I** had to swim two hundred kilometres out into the Gulf of Mexico today."

"Please don't tell me that was all about you."

"Hey, some people value my contribution. Was.. sort of... expecting.. Kobra to be joining me… Hey, was that _you_?"

Nothing to stop his people sending someone to visit a prisoner later. "It was a team effort."

"I gotta admit: I thought you'd go fer the mob heading to Houma. Thought they'd send.. I don't know, Robin or someone into the prison. If you even survived the Watchtower."

"Truggs-"

"Crock and me tossed for who got to do the swim…"

"I'm hanging up."

"Oh, come on. Don't be that _guy_. I just.. called to say… Well done. I honestly thought the Nazis would get yeh. Or at least hold you up a bit. Far as I can see you people just blitzed straight through."

"And you know that how?"

"Satellite mounted camera pointed at the Watchtower's windows. Didn't.. see how it ended. Hey, I know it's a bit of an ask, but could yeh tell me what happened t' Klarion? I… Heh, I don't like it when I can't see where he is."

I put my right hand to my forehead. "How did you even get this number?"

"A really pissed off GBS intern."

_Ughh_. I _asked_ them not to fire her. "Why should I tell you? What's in it for me?"

"Future knowledge? _Aaaa_**h**? I got a **problem**, I don't mind coming at it from multiple angles."

"What problem?"

"You remember I said my future was 'crummy'? Thing that makes it like that? N_oooo_t all that far away."

"Uh_h_, fine. He went through a portal into what was probably Valhalla." In the background the birdsong quietens and is steadily replaced by whale song. "Captain Nazi, Krieger and **bits** of Savage too. I don't know where they are now."

"Huh. Wonder what the _spread_ on that was."

"Can I go back to sleep now?"

"No, you get a little story first. Aah, what's that sport you British people invented that you're really bad at now?"

"Most of them?"

"Huh. I guess. Llllet's go with cricket. Earth in my time is kinda like you people and cricket. I mean, you look around _now_and… We've got technology that can go toe to toe with the best in the universe. I mean, you've seen that, right?" I 'mm' noncommittally. "We got superheroes -most places don't have those- and most importantly? Isolation. And then… We didn't. About a decade from now, Earth gets hit **hard**. Orbital bombardment, billions dead." Shiiit. I can't.. take that as _gospel_. Should be able to check with Abra… "You know, with the bombardment and the slavery and the vivisection and that... The deportations, even by **my** time there's only about a tenth as many people on Earth as there are now? And that's _after_ we recovered."

"Who was it?"

"They're called 'The Reach', but let's be honest here: it could have been Kundians or Apokoliptians or.. any of a hundred civilizations." Don't really remember much about the Reach in the comics. Didn't that Mexican Blue Beetle boy have one of their scarab armour things? "You get weak… People take advantage."

"But why does it matter to you? You… You said you're from _after_ that happened?"

"You _like_ losing at Cricket to everyone who can throw a team together? All the places you used to rule?" He exhales. "It's like… You train really hard at somethin'… Hundred metre sprint. You go to the Olympics. You win yer heat, you win yer semi and you come second in the final. What do you remember?"

Supervillain answer? "Not getting gold?"

"Bin-_go_. Earth coulda been a contender, not some damn Thanagarian protectorate. I can't even hate _them_. If they hadn't swung by we wouldn't have.. _anything_. Our history was just _gone_ with our data networks."

"I can't believe that the Justice League just... what, all died?"

"I can't either but I don't _know_. Record 'r pretty good up to… Y'know. Then there's a huge _blank._"

"That doesn't justify what you're doing. If you're really that concerned -and it sounds like you've got reason to be- then-."

"Wanna know somethin' really interesting? Guess who wears an orange power ring and isn't in the database."

"I'm not a League member."

"No, I got mission reports. Things like that. I know who was workin' with the League. You weren't listed _at all_. You weren't in that timeline. Which.. says to **me**… You're the only other guy can fix this. You're doin' the kinda things **I** would, sorta. And you're workin' with the _League_."

"Yes. I still believe they can be taught. Truggs, you can-."

The sounds cuts off. He's hung up. I lower the ring to my side.

What now? I raise my right hand to chest height. "Stewart-ring. Talk to me about The Reach."

**Ex Perdition**

**1st January  
19:34 GMT -4**

"…_beyond_ not cool." The image of Guy floating over Stewart's ring shakes it's head at me.

I walk down the corridor in the direction of the living area. "I know, I know. But I had no other way to get back!" His lip curls slightly as he nods. "If the Guardians had given me a star chart months ago I wouldn't have needed to. How are things on Oa?"

"Same old same olds. Kilowog's got me helpin' out with the rookies."

"**Noo**. **Noo**. Guy, you need to be teaching the _**veterans**_ your technique." He gives me a sceptical look. "Seriously. It's too advanced for rookies. Get Salaak to find a few Sectors with two experienced Lanterns, recall one of them and show them how it works."

"I don't think Salaak's really in the mood fer more 'Human shenanigans' right now."

I turn the corner and can hear the television in the distance. "He actually said that?"

"Yeah. Oh, you know, _translators_, but…"

"Try getting Kilowog to do it then. Have you shown _him_?"

He nods. "Think he got it. Course, the only way t' check would be bringing you here."

"I'll probably pop over once my year's up. Anyway, reason I called. I got a phone call from Nylor Truggs this morning."

"What, you leave your number in a phone box or something?"

"He hacked GBS's phone records. You know Truggs says that he comes from the future?" Guy nods. "According to him we're due to be conquered by The Reach in a decade or so." Guy stops smiling. "He _says_ that's why he came back."

"So why's he workin' fer Team Evil?"

"Because we failed. The League wasn't able to prevent it from happening, so he's trying to buff some other faction. Either that, or he's trying to force us to improve by giving us harder challenges. I've spent most of the day going through John's database on the Reach."

"He could just be bullshitting you."

"Yes… He could. I would probably have been able to tell if I could see him while he was saying it… On the other hand, looking at the stellar maps-" I hold up my left hand and generate a chart. "-in my **particular** area of interest it looks like I'll run into them anyway."

The somewhat nebulous border of the territory of the Reach Stellar Empire is marked out in a slightly brighter orange hue than the worlds around it. The map is 'dead' as of Stewart's last update so it might have expanded a bit since then. Plus, most of the systems marked aren't readily habitable. Yes, they _could_ dismantle a few gas giants and build artificial habitats but it's so resource intensive that even the Reach don't bother outside the core of their territory. I expand one section and individual border worlds are marked out. "See what I see?"

Guy looks off to the side for a moment, then back 'towards camera'. "Maltus."

"They're actually curving around it. They can't hope to conquer it with brute force and I can't think how they'd corrupt the **Controllers**… And I think I can probably work out who the Orange Lantern Corps' first target is going to be. Except… Do I cause the attack on Earth? From the way Truggs was talking it was fairly apocalyptic."

Guy shakes his head. "You can't worry about stuff like that. But…" He has a furtive look over his shoulder. "Okay, look; I'm not sure I'm meant ta tell you this, but the Guardians think that the Controllers are already fighting the Reach. Lanterns in nearby Sectors have reported seeing these guys carrying out hit and run attacks on Reach shipping." The starchart disappears, being replaced by the image of a burly alien with a head somewhat like that of a bulldog trading fire with Reach starship. "They wear this red, white and silver power armour with this.. sort of black starburst symbol-"

I smile. "The Darkstars."

"That what they're called? Wouldn't get too excited about it. Every time we saw them fighting Scarab Warriors they were getting' their asses kicked."

"They'd probably do better if they had power rings."

Guy shakes his head. "No can do Paul. The treaty them and the Guardians signed says no Lanterns-."

"No **Green** Lanterns."

He's silent for a moment as he takes that in. "Heh. Hehhehheh. Think they know rings come in other colors?"

"Sinestro isn't exactly subtle. On the other hand, it's a big universe."

"So, what? You're just gunna give 'em all rings an' let 'em go at it?"

"Hardly. Even without Bobblehead malware-"

"Will you lay off'f that! They don't-"

"You couldn't kill people, Guy! The Green Lantern Corps was at war and they couldn't kill their enemies! The Scarabs **are** a threat to Lanterns -just about- but the reason you lost was because-"

"We didn't **lose**!" The image glitches. "We got a draw and a peace treaty. No more Reach battle fleets firing on unprotected worlds from orbit!"

"What do you call it when one side advances and the other retreats? Reach occupied space is… What? Five times as big by volume now as it was then? Are they any _nicer_? Give me a few hundred people who hate them, people whose worlds are under Reach control, whose people are slaves, whose strongest desire is to unmake them utterly… I think we'll get a different result."

"And then what? You wanna give a bunch of genocidal maniacs power rings you'd best be damn sure you can make them give them back at the end of it."

"_That_ volume of space? Destroying the Reach will take _centuries_. Besides, rings can be used to rebuild their worlds as well as killing their enemies." He doesn't look convinced. "You **know** I use mine like that."

"You ain't exactly most people. And you haven't had decades a' seein' your homeworld torn apart. That sorta pain does stuff to yah and it ain't usually anythin' good. And _you_ had trouble with the orange light anyway."

"So I'll ask the Controllers to be a bit more selective about it. It still gives me a core of experienced people to build my Corps from."

He thinks for a moment and then nods. "Plus, no one _here_'s likely t' complain about the Reach gettin' hammered. Doubt even the Guardians would mind _that_."

"Any chance they'll approve bringing the Watchtower up to spec? If the Reach are heading this way…"

"I'll _ask_, but I doubt it. Couldn't you sort somethin' out?"

"Yes, I could build a series of space based battle fortresses armed with beam singularity projectors. Six months down the line I'll probably be able to build ones powered by Personal Lanterns in the same way Sector Houses are and equip them with nuclear force nullifiers and giant orange defensive barriers. You think they'll be okay with _that_? Heck, you think the Justice League would be?"

"Or you could just build _one_."

"Wouldn't be enough. If I'm doing a job I'm going to do it properly."

He moves his jaw slightly to the side, then looks around again. "Ah, look, I gotta go. I'll pass it on. For what it's worth. Just don't do anythin' too crazy until I get back."

I take a moment to reflect on the activity I have planned for this evening. "I'll see what I can do. Bye Guy."

He waves goodbye and the images shut down as I walk into the living room.

**1st January  
19:38 GMT -4**

Wallace is slouched on the settee with a large bowl of popcorn on his lap. He looks around as I walk in. "Oh, hey Oh El." He takes another handful of popcorn and tosses a couple of pieces into his mouth as something on the screen explodes.

"You.. do know my name, right?"

"Hm." He thinks for a moment. "Guess I kinda got used to calling you that."

"Look, if me calling you 'Wallace' is bothering you I can just stop. I manage to call Robert 'Rob'."

"Eh, it's sort of your thing now." He straightens up a little. "You got any plans for the weekend?"

"Upgrading my Ice Fortress. Thanks to Lantern Stewart I can finally give it a decent power source."

He looks puzzled. "Really? I'm not one for slacking off but we just had three missions back to back. You sure you don't wanna take it easy for a bit?"

"It **is** easy. Me, the arctic wastes, the dulcet tones of Sandi Toksvig on the radio…"

"Who?"

"BBC Radio four presenter."

"Not taking Zatanna with you?"

"N_o_. She.. left some homework to the last minute. Plus, I don't think she'd find it very interesting."

He returns his attention to the screen as.. someone drives a car off a raised section of road. Onto the rear of a lorry. There's no way that would work. "Just make sure you don't paint a giant **skull** on the side or anything."

I smile as I take the seat to his right. "You know, I _wasn't_ going to… But now I'm thinking about it. What are your plans?"

"After Wednesday, last night and this morning? I plan on doing as little as possible. Oh, hey, you know that Rush Hour girl, right?"

"Actually, no." He raises his right eyebrow. "I know _of_ her but we've never actually spoken."

"You know how her superspeed works?"

"How it _works_, the **mechanism**? No. The _trigger_ is a mantra -same as Missus Tyler- but I've tried just saying it myself. " I shrug. "No change." He nods. "You made a decision about Nyssa yet?"

"Is there.. like, some way we can tell _her_ and be **sure** it won't get back to Luthor?"

"No. There's no way to be certain Luthor won't find out. Heck, we don't know that Savage didn't have Mister Allen take samples of his own blood and post them to him while he was being mind controlled."

His eyes widen. "You don't think he _did_, right?"

"No, it too obviously links Lex to the attack." I think for a moment. "They might have posted it to the Brain…"

"Would that work?"

"No idea but I _really_ hope not. If you're worried about Nyssa there are.. magically binding contracts. I don't know how eager she'd be to sign one. Plus, you've got everyone else who works there-."

"Including Doctor Sivana. Nice going there."

"Better than leaving him in the wild. And the recording equipment. You'd have to get her to agree to do nothing at the research centre. Heck, Truggs had a version of the Thinking Cap. Even _thinking_ about it might be a risk."

He sinks back into the cushions. "Great. Think I'll try talking to… What was her name?"

"Until she tells you otherwise, 'Rush Hour'."

"Oh, come _on_. Bet _you_ didn't ask her."

"True. But insufficient. I violated her secret identity for professional reasons. This is personal. Plus you're already planning to hit on her."

"I!" He looks aside. "Am.. not…"

"It sounded like Diana wanted to recruit her anyway."

"Oh yeah?" He smiles. "How'd she take you locking Nabu in the store room?"

I wince. "The dressing down I received was both entirely deserved and proportionate. Nabu didn't give you any trouble when you let him out, I hope?"

"He teleported away as soon as I took the chains off. Heh. Still can't believe you just left him there."

"I had a lot going on! I meant to go back for him, just.. sort of.. didn't get round to it." I still don't quite know how I managed that one. I actually checked for telepathic interference but no, just me being a numpty. I thought four hours would be sufficient to get out if he **could** but then the prison break happened…

"Did he give _you_ any trouble?"

"No, he accepted my explanation. Not that it exactly _helps_; even if Klarion can't get the chain off himself one of the others should be able to."

"Kinda surprised. I thought he'd bear a grudge."

"Maybe it's an Order thing; he thinks I'm Diana's problem to discipline, that happened, therefore it's resolved."

"Could be." he returns his attention to the television and feeds himself some more popcorn.

"Actually, there was something I wanted to ask you. I mean, not about that."

"What was it?"

"What happened to Kent Nelson's walking stick?"

"Uh? Oh, it got burned up powering the shield spell Kent put around us. Well, most of it; I put the Helmet on before the handle got destroyed. I thought about putting it in the trophy room, but we had the Helmet…"

"And where is it now?"

"It's in my room. I mean, my room here. Why, you want it for something?"

"I was going to ask Sephtian… That Atlantian guy I work with?" He nods. "To have a look at it, see if he could get anything useful out of it. If we had a shield spell like the one Mister Nelson used it could be very useful." To say nothing of the fact that it would be a perfect focusing aid for the séance I have planned for this evening.

"I kinda figured Fate probably set the cane up for him."

"Right, but we can still work out what those spells were. You know, reverse engineer the thing."

He waves his left hand in a show of indifference. "Hey, if you want it, it's on the dresser."

"Thank you. That will be most helpful."

**1st January  
19:47 GMT -4**

"Welcome, Orange Lantern two eight one four. Welcome, Teekl."

Only one zeta tube in the world greets us like that. I smile and take a look at the zeta tube's computer terminal as I pass. I think this part of the Zatara residence used to be a smoking room, old tasteful furniture, wooden panelling and a slightly stuffy scent. No dust, of course. Zatanna told me that there's a whole slew of spells built into the structure of the place. I have no idea who did it; the Zataras only moved in seven years ago. It was probably by the same people who thought that 'Shadowcrest' was a clever thing to call an enchanted house.

Another place where I can't scan things. I open the door to the main hallway and look around. A lot of the rooms aren't in regular use. It shouldn't take that long to-

"…about you. About _him_."

Teekl's ears prick up and she looks around. I.. don't recognise that voice. The house reacts violently to hostile people -heck, I got smacked in the face by a floorboard when I tried scratching the leg of a chair to see what would happen- so he can't be an intruder.

"I'm.. I'm sorry about the performances-" She sounds distressed. I transition to the open area just inside the front door and start heading towards the kitchen.

"I don't care about the stage show, Zatanna. I want to know that my friend's alright. That **you're** alright." Yep, in the kitchen. "It's been two months and I haven't heard a word from him. John's missed performances before, but-" I push open the door. Zatanna's sitting at the kitchen table, a pad of paper, two textbooks and some writing implements in front of her, along with a cup on tea on a saucer. Sitting across from her is a frustrated looking man of oriental extraction in black jeans, blue striped shirt and pale brown jacket. There's a nearly empty mug of coffee in front of him. He looks up as soon as I walk in and then looks away. "Speak of the devil…"

Zatanna looks at me, then him and then back to me. "Paul, this is Uncle Ch-. Um, Charles Tong. He's Dad's manager."

Oh, right. I dip my head in his direction as I approach. "Good evening, Mister Tong."

He nods back as I walk around the table to Zatanna. "Hello Paul. Maybe _you_ can tell me what's going on."

I put the head of Mister Nelson's cane down next to Zatanna while keeping my eyes on him. The ring makes lying so easy, perfect control of what would otherwise be involuntary physical reflexes. "With.. regard to..?"

"I want. To know. Where **John** is."

"Annnnnd…" I glance at Zatanna. "You haven't been told?"

"I know what the League told the world is bullcrap! What's going on!?"

"Mister Zatara was possessed by a Lich." There's a slight intake of breath from Zatanna. "The League are currently working to free him but it's fairly heavy going as the creature does not want to be removed."

"Where is he? I want to see him."

"Mister Tong, that wouldn't be safe. The spells containing him aren't reliable enough that non-practitioners are allowed anywhere near him, _plus_, he's being held in Atlantis. You can't breathe water and you couldn't survive the depth."

"Oh." He blinks and his eyes dip to the table for a moment. "I.. guess that makes sense. But what's with the subterfuge? Why wasn't Zatanna allowed to tell me?"

"The fewer people know the smaller the chance of some evil wizard trying to break in. Needless to say, we need you not to tell **anyone** about this."

"But-."

I nod and make a show of wincing. "Yes, Batman should.. probably have put you on an exceptions list or something. I'm sorry about that."

He shakes his head, not making eye contact. "But… That… I'm…" He looks back at me. "If John's not here, who's looking after Zatanna?"

"Uncle Charlie, I'm fourteen." I wince inwardly. "Not having dad around is.. hard, but I can manage for a little while."

"For two _months_?"

"You know Dad's family all live in Italy. And.. I can't contact _Mom's_ family…"

"Batman and.. I, have been… You know… Around." That sounds _so_ inadequate. The sagging I do isn't feigned.

He looks from me to her. "Yeah, I picked up on that."

I glance at Zatanna. "Have I come up in conversation?"

"Once or twice." A very faint smile. "Still, I suppose at her age-"

I shake my head. "Oh, no, we're not-." / "He's not my boyfriend."

Zatanna and I make eye contact for a moment before she looks away. "He made that.. clear." Huh, that was only.. this morning. Doesn't time fly.

"You're.. not staying here-" He makes a circling motion with his right index finger, taking in the whole of the house. "-all on your own, are you?"

"No, I've been staying… Um…"

"I think Green Arrow refers to it as a 'high-tech doss house', but it's actually quite nice. Certainly.. spacious."

He thinks for a moment. "You're living in Mount Justice?"

I knew it! I knew it!

"Yes, mostly. We, ah, installed a transportation device so I can go from here to there without appearing to leave the house. There's always other people around."

"Is.. that why the League recruited Fate? I mean, if he's the man who was part of the Justice Society he's got to be at least ninety years old by now."

"That was more to take on Mister Zatara's caseload as 'League wizard'. Nabu's not really a researcher, though he'll probably be involved.. um, 'at the death', as it were."

"Do they.. have any idea how long..?"

I shake my head. "Unknown territory, really. We know a couple of things that _don't_ work. I came here because Zatanna and I were going to do some research on the subject."

"Is it something I can help with?"

"Do you know anything about necromancy?"

"I'm.. going to regret asking anything else, aren't I?"

Zatanna nods. "Probably."

"Okay. Well, I've got an answer I suppose. Zatanna,-" He reaches across the table and puts his right hand on hers. "-you know I'm always going to be here for you, alright? If you need someone who's not a superhero to talk to."

She nods and then pulls back to get up off her chair. I pick up the head of the walking stick as she walks around the table to hug him. "Thanks Uncle Charlie."

It… I had worried slightly that the adversarial path I've called for, keeping things from the League, might be cutting her off from other adult contact. It's a weight off to know that she has someone else. Someone not involved. "Right, well…" They separate, Mister Tong holding onto her hands for a moment and maintaining eye contact. She manages a small smile."Zatanna, we need to stop off in London."

"Okay." She steps away from Mister Tong and heads for the door. "Let's do this."

**1st January  
23:53 GMT**

I stick my head out of the deserted boathouse that houses the London zeta tube terminus. I've never been particularly keen on London. I'm a natural pedestrian and the place is just too big to walk around, to say nothing of the lines of sight. The London here… Well, I've read Hellblazer. I'm not spending any time here I don't have to.

"How long did he say?" I duck back in. Zatanna's sitting on a wooden bench with domesticus-sized Teekl ensconced on her lap, milking the attention for all it's worth.

"Should only be a minute or two."

"Wouldn't it be faster to pick him up?"

"Transitioning with arcane objects eats power. Plus, we're trying to keep what we're doing secret. Having me pick him up is a bit of a-" I hear a car pull up outside. I try getting the ring to show me but for some reason it doesn't… "He scry-warded Mister Chandler's cab." I hear footsteps. "And his own coat. I… I'm not sure how I feel about that."

"Guess you'll just… _Uhh_." John pushes the sliding door open wide enough for him to walk through. "Have to learn to use your eyes like the rest of us." He strolls over to Zatanna, who offers him the head of Mister Nelson's cane. He takes it and holds it up to study it.

Mister Chandler follows him in carrying a heavy looking bag. "Evening lady and gent. Oh, 'ere, thanks for the Christmas presents."

Warding amulets for himself, his wife and their daughter. Not Spelleaters as those would look a bit odd on a London cab driver but still effective in a conventional way. "You're welcome, Mister Chandler. I wasn't entirely sure they'd be well received."

He nods a little to the side. "Ye-ah, Renee nearly did her nut until I told her they _weren't_ from John. Once she calmed down a bit she was well grateful."

"Are you accompanying us this evening?"

"Not bloody likely. Here." He throws the bag at me and I catch it with both arms, bending under the weight. I left the power armour in subspace because few things say 'call the police' like someone tramping through a graveyard in a glowing assault exoskeleton. It's only half a second away if I really need it and I've still got both rings. _Those_ are concealed by weather appropriate ski gloves. Mister Chandler looks me over to check that I'm not going to collapse under the weight and then looks expectantly at John.

John keeps looking at the cane for a moment, then spots what Mister Chandler is doing, rolls his eyes and turns further away. "Yeah, good call. Should be able to get a nice resonance off-"

"Ah, come on John, it's New Year's Day! You know what Renee told me."

John points his right index finger at me. "This is all your fault."

Oh. That. I turn to Mister Chandler. "I'm.. happy to pay reasonable expenses. If you'll tell me what the fare is..?"

"You see, John? That's 'ow you get good service. Take a fuckin' lesson." John shakes his head and rolls his eyes again before slipping the cane handle into his coat pocket. "Busy time of year mate, but since you're a valued customer we'll call it twenty five quid."

I don't actually have a lot of British currency in subspace so I take a blank gold disk out instead and float it over to him. "Will this do?"

He takes hold of it in his right hand and scratches it with his thumbnail before giving me a satisfied smile. "That'll do nicely. Have fun with whatever John's dragged you into." He turns and heads back towards his cab, hands in pockets. I hear him start whistling as I close the door behind him.

John shakes his head. "I'm never going to hear the end of that. Right, where's the nearest zeta tube thingy to the Harmony Grove Cemetery?"

Zatanna picks Teekl up and sets her down on the bench next to her. "Close. The League put in a new zeta tube just a little after Nabu became a member."

"And we're sure Nabu's not there right now, are we?"

I nod. "Since he has no sense of fun and doesn't get tired he's taken monitor duty. That doesn't mean he's not _aware_ of-"

John fishes around in his pockets and takes out three leather thongs. "These should stop us triggering anything for the next few hours." I go to op-. "_**Don't**_ look inside." I think I'll take his word for it. I sling the bag's strap over my shoulder and put the thong around my neck. "You sure you can stop the tubes making a record?"

"It's just a machine and the Green Corpsmen are on Oa." I create a zeta tube construct. "After you."

John goes to walk through, then stops as he notices Teekl rubbing around his legs. She's only met him a couple of times but she seems rather taken with him. "Oh, right." He crouches down and she sits as he puts a thong around her neck as well. "Can't 'ave the cat giving the game away."

She looks down at it and sniffs. "Collar smell fun." Then she stands and gives John's leg another nuzzle. "Teekl like Laughing Magician. Laughing Magician fun man."

"Long as I've got the _cat's_ approval." John awkwardly steps over her and through the zeta construct. Teekl trots after him, tail high.

"Why.. does Teekl like him so much?"

"You heard what Nabu said. John's probably about the second most Chaos-aligned person on the planet. Suffering and havoc his constant companions and all that jazz."

She nods a little uncertainly and walks through the portal. I take a moment to erase all traces of our presence here before following her through.

**1st January  
19:56 GMT -4**

This one's in a garage. I take another moment to reset every part of it to how it was before we came though.

"So…" Zatanna looks at the wall for a moment and then back at John and I. "What.. do we do if Mister Nelson doesn't tell us anything? Or if the ritual doesn't work at all?"

John shrugs. "We keep tryin'. Paul was dead right about this being a long term thing. I mean, the chains _worked_ so we know he's not invincible or anything, but we're a bit short on ways to actually **stop** him."

I nod at him. "And if head on attacks are off the menu, we could always try that thing you did to your father. But not with a cat. I like cats."

For a fraction of a second John's eyes narrow, then his face relaxes.

Zatanna's looking at him a little nervously. "What.. thing you did to your father?"

"Minor curse I did after we had a row and I was too young an' stupid to know any better." It was a bit more than _that_. We can't shelter her from the less pleasant side of magic, not against someone as powerful and well supported as Nabu. I'm not exactly looking forwards to poisoning all of those animals myself, especially after we put them in little Nabu dresses. "Zatanna, d'you mind going on ahead? I need to talk to Paul about something real quick. Instructions are in the top of the bag."

"Um, okay. Gab emoceb sselthgiew dna taolf gnola htiw em."

The bag floats off my shoulder and drifts after her. She takes hold of the handles in her right hand and heads out of the door, Teekl trotting along behind her. I turn to John. "What was it you wanted to talk about?"

"Something that's been buzzing around me for a while now." He takes a cigarette out of his jacket pocket and takes a moment to light it. "I-" He takes a drag. "-never told anyone 'cept Gemma about that. And I know _she_ didn't tell you. **I** didn't tell you and I very much doubt that Dad did."

"Um."

He shrugs. "So maybe I got drunk sometime, blabbed it out to someone and the story drifted around. Wouldn't be the first time. Then again-" Another drag. "-it's not the first time for _you_ either. Not many people know about the tattoos I did for Elle. Not many people know about Gabriel's wings. And if I asked you how I first got together with Chas, I'm betting you know." Oooh dear. "What I wanna know is…" He looks directly at me and there's no humour in his expression at all. "How in the name of **bloody fuck** do you know all this stuff?"

**1st January  
19:58 GMT -4**

Um.

I try getting a look at his soul to try and work out how bad I've misjudged this, but… Oh, that's clever. Something -probably another bloody ward of some kind- is dampening down on my ability to see it precisely. I can see colours there but all the details get blurred when I try to make them out. I didn't notice it before because there _is_ colour there.

Um.

"What's the matter? Teekl stole your tongue?"

"I'd been… Sssssort of hoping that no one would notice that thing you just noticed. Um."

He frowns. "What? You've been doing that around Batman and he hasn't asked about it?"

"I.. think he assumes it's the ring. Scan stuff, pillage databases." I shrug. "Superheroes have secrets."

"I'm not a superhero. And this could get Zatanna hurt."

"No! I wouldn't..!" I exhale and look down for a moment. I don't want to tell him. This could mess up everything. Gather information. "If… If I don't tell you, what exactly happens?"

"Well, that's the question, innit?" He takes another drag while he considers, then breathes out a plume of smoke. "Can't very well dump Zatanna, not after what happened with her mother. Can't get rid of _you_-" He looks me over. "Not easily anyway. And it's not like you've done anything to deserve it. Not as far as I know. 'Course, there was that one man on the tube who started shouting about crimes he'd committed… You know about that one, don't you."

It was a statement not a question, but I nod anyway. "Sold his soul and his daughter's too. Nearly sold another baby for an extension. Probably would have if you hadn't stepped in."

"Right. He looked like a victim to start with and turned out to be a right tosser. So understand that I'm a **little bit concerned about this**. We're picking a fight with a sodding Lord of Order-" He takes the cigarette and jabs it at me. "-and I can't trust the bloke I'm supposed to be able to rely on."

"I didn't sell my soul to anything. Except possibly the Ophidian. I didn't used to _have_ one." He raises his eyebrows. "I know perfectly well that doesn't mean that I sold it. According to the Atlantians I shouldn't have been able to live like that. If I'd been in contact with a Demon you'd have picked up on it when you did my tattoos."

"That does rather leave the question of how you managed it."

"I told you, I come-"

"From a parallel universe. With no magic." He looks away, making a show of considering it. "Doesn't explain what you know though." A quick glance in my direction and then he goes back to studying the wall. "Look mate; I can't make you tell me. But as long as you don't, I'm going to be on edge the whole time waiting for the other shoe to drop. And honestly? I think I kinda deserve it."

"John, I haven't… I haven't told **anyone**. Diana doesn't know. Kon.. doesn't know. I can't properly judge how knowing affects…"

"Now I'm getting really interested."

I squeeze my eyes shut for a moment. "It's… It's nothing _here_. It's nothing bad exactly. I was.. just a bit worried how… It's a bit mind bending."

"Wouldn't be the first time I'd heard something like that."

Tell or not? Oh, he's just going to keep at it until he works it out. A controlled release is far less risky. "I'm going to.. **request**, that you don't tell anyone else. It could completely mess up my whole life here and I really don't think the situation justifies it."

He nods. "Not asking me to promise? Or nip over to Themyscira and get Gaea to witness an oath?"

"No. Look, I _basically_ trust you. If you **need** to release the information, do. But if you don't need to…"

He nods. "Alright, mate. Not going to mess up your life when you don't deserve it. Now. Lets see if the secret lives up to the build up, shall we?"

"Okay. Um." How to go about this? Point of reference. "You.. remember.. your friend. The one who was supplying the Family Man with his vic-"

"Jerry O'Flynn. Wasn't exactly his proudest moment but I don't want him remembered **just** for _that_." He thinks about it, then frowns at me. "You saying you didn't know his name?"

"The ring's.. improved my memory, but I don't remember everything I used to know and I _never_ knew everything."

"Alright. Go on."

"You remember what happened.. the night he… Um. Disappeared?" The first glimmerings of realisation appear, his eyes becoming slightly unfocused. "I come from… Well, I suppose it was sort of like what happened to him, but in reverse. "

He looks me over once more. "Seem to have adjusted alright?"

"This place… It's ludicrous, really. In a very fundamental way it just doesn't make sense to me. I suppose I should just be glad I got a body that works _chemically_."

"So where does the knowledge come from?"

I shrug. "It's not a secret where I'm from. The stories here fit story patterns I'm used to… Mostly. Some details differ. I was expecting Mister Zatara to have died in that ritual you did and not his wife. Other things too. And some things I just never bothered learning."

He nods. "And now you're off the reservation."

"Or on it. All a matter of perspective, really."

Another drag on the cigarette, then he lets out a chuckle. "You're right about it being mind bending. Not a lot of people coming through from your side, then?"

"As far as I know everyone thinks that it's impossible. Of course, **where** I am in relation to where I started… In Bleed terms…"

"Don't know much about _that_." Another brief chuckle. "Blimey. Anything else you wanna share?"

"I wouldn't say that I **wanted** to share _that_."

He raises his eyebrows. "Is there?"

"No. Can we.. go now?"

"Yeah." He straightens up a little. "Shouldn't leave a fourteen year old girl alone in a graveyard with only vast arcane power for protection and an intelligent cat for company. Starting to sound like a frigging Japanese cartoon."

"And.. you don't feel the need to share what I just told you?"

Another chuckle as he walks towards the door. "I think I'd be running up against something of a credibility problem there, mate. I don't know-" He turns the handle and waits for me to follow. "-if you're just mental or that's actually _true_."

"_**I**_ don't know if it's actually **true**. Not like I can check."

"Confession's supposed to be good for the soul. You tried saying your name again?"

I try thinking it and stumble against the wall. "Still taboo."

"You know anything about what's going to happen next?"

I shake my head as we start down the street. "John, we're so far off my map theodolites haven't been invented yet."

**1st January  
20:09 GMT -4**

John finishes pouring salt into the groove of the outer circle and hands the bag over to me before stepping back. "Looks about right."

I used the ring to mark out the design around the grave and Zatanna filled the lines in with white sand. The sigils within are completely different from what he used in Poseidonis but the Enochian characters are the same as the ones I've seen mentioned in various Atlantian texts on this sort of ritual. The head of Mister Nelson's cane rests in the centre. Nothing looks massively out of place, which is just about the limit of my analytical abilities in these matters.

John also did.. _something_ to the graveyard itself. Not exactly a popular time for visiting the departed anyway but anyone who tries will start to find themselves less eager do to so as they approach the front gate. The Tower of Fate is currently back in the nexus of the subtle realms, wherever that is. Nabu moved it out of Salem as soon as he took control of Mister Zatara. Thinking about it, Onomatopoeia, Zard and Faust are probably still in there. He certainly hasn't condescended to hand them over to the civil authorities.

Zatanna shifts her weight from her left foot to her right and then back again. "You don't sound very sure."

John tilts his head to the side for a moment. "Summoning's not really that hard, that's half the trouble with it. Nelson was buried here, we've got an artefact that was important to him when he was alive and he's got no reason to feel vengeful. Even if it all goes tits up the salt ring'll stop him gettin' out before we can put him back down."

'Put him back down'? My eyes are drawn back to the headstones I've been trying to avoid looking at. "We're not.. animating his **corpse**, right?"

John rolls his eyes up and shakes his head. "Have a _little_ faith. He might manifest **from** his body, but what we'll be gettin' is his spirit made visible by magic."

Teekl's sitting on the far side of the two headstones. She tries dawking the space above the salt ring but snatches her paw back with a look of shocked affront. Guess that means it's working?

Zatanna's still not meeting Jon's eyes. "What do we do when it's.. over?"

"I say 'I release you' and that's that. Look, Zatanna, I've summoned up some real miserable bastards before. A former superhero who -according to Nabu- wasn't in favour of what Nabu was doing anyway shouldn't be any trouble." John looks from her to me and then back again. "We doing this or what?"

She nods. "Yes, we're doing this." She sounds more certain now. I checked, and the Catholic Church does allow this sort of magic in criminal investigations as long as all other reasonable avenues have been exhausted. Pulling people out of Yahweh's loving embrace isn't supposed to be something you do casually. I.. have no idea whether or not Mister and Missus Nelson were Christian. I mean, they _probably_ were, but if his contact with Nabu and other supernatural entities resulted in him going pagan his soul might have gone anywhere. Does Order even have an afterlife?

"Right then." John clears his throat. "In this sacred space we call out to the spirit of our departed colleague, Kent Nelson. We humbly request that he hear us and come to us that he might share his wisdom."

Nothing obvious happens. My turn then.

"We humbly beseech Doctor Kent Nelson to come among us and speak with us once more. We are sorely in need of his wise counsel."

I see a pale wisp of vapour rise from.. I'm not sure, actually. Could be from the sand or from the grave itself. Or both, I suppose. It isn't as if I've seen one of these things done before.

"Tnek Noslen, ew deen uoy."

The vapour shoots upwards, stopping at a point about a hundred and seventy centimetres from the ground and filling in Mister Nelson's form from the head downwards. As his head completes and looks around, taking in the sigils on the ground and his audience. The vapour next lends form to his chest and arms and he checks those over. "Hmm. Interesting being on this end of things for a change." He fixes his eyes on John as his waist and legs appear. "You must be John Constantine. I've heard about you."

John gives a shallow nod. "Yeah?"

Mister Nelson wiggles his right index finger at me. "Orange Lantern over there said I should consider handing the whole 'Fate' thing over to you."

John glances at me and raises his eyebrows. "He _said_. **I** wouldn't trust me with that sort of power."

"That's not necessarily a _bad_ attitude to have. Anyway, Nabu would be the one exercising the power." He turns to me. His legs move but his feet aren't quite touching the ground. "Well? How was the funeral?"

"I didn't see the family funeral. All the surviving members of the Society turned up for the 'professional' one, along with a good chunk of the League. And my team, of course."

"Hope it wasn't too depressing for you."

"Not really. I don't really… In a reality with demonstrable afterlives, I'm not really sure _how_ I should feel about it."

He smiles faintly before turning to Zatanna. "Zatanna, you have no idea how glad I am that Nabu relented and released you. When he pushed my soul out of the Helmet I felt for sure…" He trails off. "What happened?"

"My father offered himself in my place. Nabu's still controlling him."

"For how long?"

"As long as he wants."

Mister Nelson sighs, tilting his head slightly downwards and shaking it. "Oh, Zatanna. I'm… I'm so sorry. If there'd been any way for me to prevent it…"

"Mister Nelson, we called you here because we're not taking this lying down. We intend to remove Nabu, by force if necessary."

He turns back to me. "You've got guts, kid. But it'll take a lot more than that to take down a Lord of Order."

"I know. That's why I want you to tell me where it was you first picked up the Helmet." He looks.. a little disconcerted. "Alan let us look through your diaries. The one covering that period-"

He waves his right hand to stop me. "I left it in the Tower for safe keeping and none of us can get in anymore. And anyway I.. don't know how much it would help."

"Sympathetic resonance. Some sort of artefact that he'd been in close proximity to for a long time would be idea-"

"You don't need to explain the operating principles of magic to me. But even if you did get something like that, what exactly would you do with it?"

"Weaken Nabu to the point where removing the Helmet without his permission became a possibility."

He nods. "You know, I can't help but feel a little responsible. If I hadn't left Nabu on the shelf for all those years he might not have felt this was necessary."

"Yeah, maybe." _John!_ "But I've seen those diaries too. Maybe if he'd treated you decently you wouldn't have done that. Far as Giovanni Zatara's concerned, doesn't matter much either way. Nabu's where he is **now**, that's what we've got to deal with."

Mister Nelson nods. "My father and I found Nabu in a tomb just north of Jahra. There were a lot of biers all laid out in rows, one for each of his former hosts. I don't know why the last one didn't pass it on…" He looks down for a moment, remembering. "The skeleton in the oldest tomb wasn't Human." We all look interested and he raises his hands to try to halt our enthusiasm. "Now, I don't know if it was actually _his_…"

"Can you show me the location?"

He holds out his right hand and the head of his cane rises to it. The remainder of the cane fills in with the same vapour making up the rest of his body. Once it's complete he holds up the head and a simple map of the area appears before him. Marvellous, it's in Bialya. "Take a look around when you get there. Might learn something from the hieroglyphics."

"Thank you. Do you know if Nabu has any particular weaknesses we could exploit?"

"Aside from needing a host?" He considers. "He's not very mentally flexible. Not sure if that'll help you any."

"Thank you Mister Nelson. There was.. one other thing."

"What is it?"

"The other thing that was in contact with him for a prolonged period of time was… Um, your head. Would you be prepared to.. let us…"

"You want a piece of my body?" He thinks for a moment, then shrugs. "If you think it'll help. I'm sure not using it any more."

"Thank you. I…" I look at John and Zatanna. "I don't think there's anything else I want to-"

"Did you see her again?" Zatanna blinks at her own forthrightness as he turns back to her. "Your wife, Inza?"

This time his smile isn't half hearted. "Yeah. And she's still a real pistol."

**2nd January  
02:41 GMT +3**

It's still pitch black as John, Zatanna and I approach the co-ordinates Mister Nelson gave us. At this altitude and time of the year it's bloody cold in the Bialyan desert so I've extended my environmental shield around both of them. We're a good long way away from any modern settlements, which goes some way to explain why no one has found the tomb since. Bialya's World Heritage sites are far to the west of here and we're far enough from water sources that it's unlikely anyone would just stumble across it. The tomb itself is warded -naturally- but the ring's seismic scans have no trouble picking it up. I suppose there was no reason for Nabu's ancient wearers to try protecting it from something like that.

"Laever lla secnefed." Zatanna points towards where the buried entrance is located. I've put thin orange lines on the dust and rock, showing the approximate size and shape of the subterranean space. A couple of tiny lights appear showing its still active protections.

"Antechamber looks clear." I hold out the phase shifters.

Zatanna takes hers and attaches it to her armour. John takes his and turns it around so that he can cast a sceptical gaze over it. "We could just astral project inside."

"Use magic to break into a place that houses dead hosts of the local Lord of Order?"

"As opposed to using a machine from the future you don't understand?"

"No, these were made **here**. Only the _designs_-."

"Evom em ot eht rebmahcetna." Zatanna rolls her eyes at us as she rises slightly off the ground and then floats clean through the ground in the direction of the tomb's entrance.

John wrinkles his face for a moment and then presses the shifter to his chest. I activate them both and then pull us through the ground. It's interesting; obviously the only light between the surface and the stonework below is what the rings are generating. If I had to guess what I'd be seeing I'd have said either a dull orange light or nothing. What's actually happening is the ring interfacing with my optic nerve and nudging it to show me the results of the seismic scan as if I could actually see it. It's almost like floating through empty space. I didn't **tell** the rings to do this… Can't say I'd even thought about it. I do prefer it, though.

It only takes us a few moments to come out into the antechamber. Zatanna has already conjured a glowing ball of light and I watch as she gently lifts it into the air to float up towards the ceiling. I deposit John on the ground and he's only too happy to dispense with the shifter. Quick scan of the rock… The oldest parts were probably put together sometime around five thousand years ago. If they put all of the 'Fates' here that would make the oldest among them contemporary with Adom. Not sure when they stopped using it or how it ended up buried. I mean, the path of the Tigris and Euphrates has changed over the years… Maybe some sort of rockslide which resulted in dust getting trapped? Could it have been buried deliberately? Maybe there was a portion above ground which was destroyed and all that's left are the catacombs?

"Modest, wasn't he?" John's looking at the pictures on the wall surrounding the entrance. Someone wearing what is clearly the Helmet of Fate is seated, glowing ankh in hand, while the people around him bow down.

"No, the style's wrong. I think that was added later."

"Hm." He reaches for a cigarette.

"_Joh_**n**!"

"Oh, come on, mate. It's not going to damage the place."

"We're underground. Your irreverence and smoking habits are well known and the smoke's got nowhere to go. **He** might spot it." He returns the cigarette packet to his pocked and buttons it closed. "If you need one that badly I can just stick some nicotine into your blood."

He shakes his head. "It's not the same."

"Are you two coming?" Zatanna looks back at us, having already gone a little way into the outer chamber. Another orb of light floats just above her and two Lamassu statues stand guard at her sides. I feel a glimmer of nervousness for a moment but the statues remain inanimate. They're.. still painted! Even after all this time! Bright blues and yellows on their wings, black hair and red helmets decorated with gold ankhs displaying their affiliation.

There are other statues, long haired and thickly bearded men seated and wearing robes. I don't know exactly what the images carved into their thrones and clothes mean but I take a scan of them anyway. This is… Simply amazing. Mister Nelson said that Nabu didn't want him to come back here but any modern archaeologist would give their right arm to see this!

Zatanna's stopped at the next doorway, just in front of the first still active defensive spell. "I.. don't recognise this one."

John picks up the pace a little as I keep gawping. What would Queen Beatrice do if she knew about this place? Probably put a small army around it and have a team of archaeologists go through it **very** carefully. Does she have any wizards on the payroll? I don't _think_ so. Be a PR coup if the whole place didn't self destruct or something. Never really considered going after Nabu _politically_…

Jon kneels down and waves an unlit match at the faintly glowing rune. "Simple trap. Doesn't report back."

"What does it do?"

"Dunno. Paralysis, probably. Could be zombification."

"They can do that?"

"Yeah? Oh, not undead rotting corpse zombie. Like, it locks away part of your soul. Nasty stuff, but easy enough to undo if you know what you're doing. When this place was in use they probably checked a couple of times a week."

"How do we get past it?"

"Like _this_. By Laverna and by Eris, I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." The match flares as the light marking the protective spell goes out.

"Did you just quote Harry flipping Potter?"

He stands and carefully returns the match to his pocket. "Whatever works."

Zatanna leads the way once more. Given my lack of any sort of feeling for magic I'm happy to bring up the rear. The passageway is walled with stone bricks. It's all survived remarkably well… "Is there some sort of preservation effect on this place?"

John reaches out to the side and puts his hand on the wall for a moment. "Yep. Good housekeeping, really."

"So how come your place is a sty?"

"I think of it as 'lived in'. I mean-" We pause and look into a room on the left. "-this place is a tomb. Nothing organic. Nothing living. Thousands of years and nothing out of place. Doesn't feel natural to me." Just as Mister Nelson described, the rooms contain a series of biers with complete Human skeletons resting on them. Most have protective spells on them and in any case I doubt that they'd be much more use than the fragments of Mister Nelson's skull I have sitting in subspace. There are a few artefacts; metal cups, metal staves and a few swords. I take a scan of the rooms before we continue onwards.

There are more chambers of the same design to the left and right as we press onwards. The room at the far end is the one housing the alien remains and that is where we're going. Of course, in a ying-yang sort of way it seems appropriate that the resting place of the disciples of the Lords of Order contains… I enter the room behind John. Zatanna's already looking at the remains of Doctor Sven Nelson and whatever the name of Nabu's most recent but three host was. Their remains are almost perfectly preserved. No rot at all, even after seventy years. Just a little dried out. Mister Nelson only put the Helmet on much later and there was no way he'd have been able to get the bodies out by himself. The sarcophagus the host was in has been turned into an ersatz bier while his father had been laid out with his arms clasping a bible to his chest.

"Come on." John gently puts his arm around Zatanna's shoulder and leads her to the bier at the end of the room. It's decorated with gold and is raised up higher than the others. The pictures on the back wall show a figure in blue and gold descending from the sky, backlit by a radiant ankh. Another scene, showing him with scholars and monarchs. Another showing him teaching students and the last… Shows him dead, his spirit passing into the Helmet, which in turn passed on to one of his students.

The bones are similar to those of a Human but the structures are wrong. "Ring, identify the species."

"Individual identification impossible. Species identified as native of planet Cilia."

John holds his right hand over Nabu's skull for a moment with his eyes shut. "Not here and not passed on. I think we've got our man."

**1st January  
21:39 GMT -4**

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, B zero six, Zatanna Zatara, B zero nine, Teekl, C zero one."

"…why he needed all of those dead mice." We head in the direction of the living quarters, Zatanna making a face as if she's swallowed something unpleasant. "Does he.. have a pet snake?"

I do a quick scan of the interior of the mountain as Teekl wanders off. Kaldur, Kon, M'gann, Donna, Artemis and Wallace are all in the living area. Depending on when Garth and Tula move in we may have to do something about enlarging it. "No, I'm afraid not. The idea is to use them as the effector component in a sym-"

"Sympathetic resonance spell using his bones to bypass his defences." Her face stills as she considers it. "Since it's only connecting to the Nabu component and not…" She nods, then blinks in realisation. "John did that to his _father_! That's horrible!"

"He read about it in a book. He didn't actually think it would work." I generate a construct of Thomas Constantine in his prime. "John used a cat, dressed it up to look like his father, drew some squiggly lines around it and stuck it in a shed somewhere. When he saw it was actually _working_ he went back to the book the spell was in, and there wasn't a reversal. In the end he stuck the cat in a jar of formaldehyde to stop it rotting further."

She frowns. "But that wouldn't reverse the effects. The link would still be active. How long did it take him to find out how..?" She sees me wince. "How long?"

"Couple of weeks after his father's murder. About twenty years in total."

Her eyes dip as she thinks about the magics involved. "The link would work.. both ways. If he died before the cat finished rotting away…" She shakes her head. "I've never heard of a case like that."

"I imagine that everyone would prefer it if you stayed away from **that** sort of magic. Where possible."

"What happened to him?"

"His soul was bound to the material world by the link to the cat. Even after his body was cremated his ghost just sort of hung around Gemma. She was the only one who could see him so people thought that she might be having some sort of episode. Or post traumatic amnesia. In the end she spoke to John about it, after the funeral. That reminded him about the cat. He dug it up and set fire to it to break the spell."

We take a turn towards the part of the mountain I occupy. The sociable thing would be to at least say hello to everyone first, but while I might not be physically tired I _can_ get mentally exhausted. After all the excitement I really feel like I could do with turning my brain off for a bit. On that subject… "Are you.. planning on going home?"

"I… Probably not. You said you were going to be working on your Ice Fortress tomorrow?"

"Yes. I'm going to start by changing the power supply to something called a Bleed Membrane Instability Generator. Probably install a force field system. You're welcome to come along but I'm not sure how interesting you'll find it."

"No, that could be.. interesting."

"Are you sure? Because there's a whole herd of quantum-legged horses-"

She smiles. "You noticed that too?"

"That the number of legs they have changes from moment to moment? Yes."

"What do you think will happen to them? They can't stay on the Watchtower."

"Why not? They're going to have to replant a lot of the arboretum anyway, they can just include more grass. Hopefully Diana can get in touch with Odin… Now _**there's**_ a sentence I couldn't imagine saying a year ago."

"If those were really Einherjar then Odin's sided with the Nazis."

"I'd be surprised if Odin was on anyone's side but Odin's. If he wants his people's remains and equipment back then he can negotiate." I stop just before reaching my door. "I.. don't suppose you've been sleeping any better?"

She looks away, towards her own door. "No. Not really."

"So.. do you want me to try..?" I raise my hands and _just_ about stop myself making a grabbing gesture. My teacher Ms Terrill was quite clear about what **not** to do to scare off people who aren't used to being touched like that.

Zatanna flushes slightly. "Umm… I.. don't know…"

"Zatanna, you have school Monday and a fairly large amount of work to do. You need sleep and drugging yourself unconscious isn't a long term solution."

"It's not _that_. Um. How… How naked am I-?"

Hands raised defensively. "Oh, no no no. I mean, that's-" I gesture at what she's wearing now. "-fine, if you take off the coat. I'd certainly think it completely inappropriate to go beyond, you know, swimming costume level. And I completely understand if _that's_ a bit much." She smiles a little in relief. "In a case since there's nothing actually wrong with your muscles I'm.. more or less trying to evoke the ancestral grooming response."

"Okay. Your room.. or mine?"

"Whichever makes you more comfortable. Though I should probably warn you that if we use mine the Ophidian will probably be watching."

"Mine it is then." She crosses the corridor and lays her right hand on the door. "Nepo emases." There's a brief puff of smoke from the doorframe and then the door opens slightly. Given that we've now had **two** attacks in here maybe I should think about up-fortifying the fixtures? "Can you give me a moment?"

I nod. "Of course."

She smiles. "Thanks." Keeping the door as closed as possible she slips into the room before closing it behind her. "Naelc pu yllaer ylkciuq!" Did she really think I'd care about her room being a bit of a mess? There's a sound of drawers and doors opening and then slamming shut. A moment later she opens the door widely. "Come on in."

"Thank you."

Her room -obviously- is spotless in the way that only magic and power rings can manage. The decorations are more pastel than my orange/grey colour scheme but the rooms are much of a muchness in terms of size and design. Her desk has a computer mine doesn't need and what in mine is a bare metal wall is covered with plaster and cream paint. We did that together a couple of days after she got here. The floor is wooden after she asked me to put one in. She said afterwards that she'd been joking, but she left it there anyway.

"So, where do you.. want me?"

"Do you have a brush?"

"Yes? Why.. do you need a brush?"

"Because it's clear that this is making you uncomfortable and the least 'massagy' thing I could do is brushing your hair. Like I said, relaxation is an instinctive response to being groomed. I think it would be a good place to start, at least while you get used to being in close physical proximity to me."

"Oh. Okay, that.. makes sense." She walks over to her chest of draws, pulls open the top drawer and takes out a black handled brush. "Is this what you need?"

I link a filament to it and take it from her. "If that's what you usually use." I point to her bed. "Take a seat." She perches a little uncertainly on the edge of the bed. I subspace my boots and jacket before getting on her bed myself and taking up position cross legged just behind her.

And she tenses again. "I.. didn't realise… Um."

"How did you think I was going to brush your hair?" I gently lift it back over her shoulders with my left hand while readying the brush in my right. "I should probably warn you that I don't myself have any issues relating to physical proximity. If anything I do makes you feel uncomfortable, just tell me and I'll stop." I can't see any knots but I take care as I move it through her hair.

"No, that's…" I can both see and feel it as she starts to relax a little. "That's fine."

**2nd January  
08:18 GMT -4**

Amazing what a good night's sleep can do for a person! Even Mister J'onzz sending us a message in the middle of breakfast in what sounded like a prelude to the fourth mission in as many days hasn't brought me down. And not just good sleep for me. Zatanna was nodding off when I left and she still hasn't -quick check- woken up yet. Didn't get much beyond a little neck work, but maybe next time. Worked though. She was also grateful that I'd been able to resolve the issue with Mister Tong. I wish she'd said something about that situation sooner.

M'gann smiles at me as she, Kon and I head to the training room where her uncle is waiting for us. "You and Zatanna were out pretty late last night."

"Not _that_ late."

Kon glances at me before returning his attention to the path ahead. "I just thought you were trying to avoid Kaldur's cooking. Are Tula and Garth going to be 'all seaweed, all the time' as well?"

"I'm not…" Yes, probably. The Conservatory teaches arcane arts not culinary ones. "Maybe we should just avoid putting them on the rota for a while? Say something about.. letting them adapt to surface foods?"

"Fine with me."

"Soo..?"

M'gann's still looking at me. "So what?"

M'gann rolls her eyes. "What did you do? Where did you go?"

"Oh, not out as in 'date' out. It was mostly a magical research thing, though we did stop off at a restaurant in London. A friend of ours knows the owner."

"Was this friend _with_ you?"

"No, he had some other stuff to do." Like buy a storage shed in London. I've got basically infinite money and even **I** thought those prices were ridiculous. Once that's taken care of it'll need to be warded and have the shelving put it… And something to deal with the smell of rotting flesh. Having a well meaning local breaking in because they smelt something bad would be disastrous. "We'd met the owner on a previous visit. If you like I can give you-" We come out of the corridor and into the training area. "-the address."

"And then?"

"And then.. we came back here." She looks unsatisfied. What would make her stop asking? "I did spend some time brushing her hair when we got back."

She frowns. "Why?"

"Oh. Right. Martian. Well, with Humans, having our hair brushed feels relaxing."

She reaches back with her right hand, takes hold of a lock of her own hair and holds it out in front of her face. "It does?"

"Our distant ancestors came from equatorial Africa. They were covered in hair to keep the sun off. Unfortunately for them, this made them perfect hosts for blood drinking parasites. Since this was before combs were invented they groomed each other. You get the same thing with modern apes."

She moves the hair slightly further away. "Parasites?"

"Those aren't so much of an issue these days with modern hygiene but the instincts are all still there."

"Really?"

I tap the skin just to the outer side of my eyes with my index fingers. "Empathic vision. I can **see** that sort of drive these days."

"I usually just shapeshift mine into place. I suppose if you've got it stuck on your head the whole time you have to take care of it." She turns back to Kon as we reach the 'ready for lecture' point. "Kon, would you mind brushing _my_ hair sometime?"

"Sure. Don't think mine's really brushable length."

M'gann tries tugging on the lock in her fingers. "I've never really tried-"

"Recognised, Martian Manhunter, zero seven."

Our heads turn in his direction as he walks out of the zeta tube. "Good morning M'gann, Kon, Paul."

"Good morning Uncle J'onn." / "Good morning, sir."

Kon just nods and Mister J'onzz assumes the lecturing position. "I have asked the three of you here in response to a request from the Department of Metahuman Affairs."

Kon frowns. "Kobra hasn't escaped again, has he?"

"No. But their efforts in getting staff for Belle Reve are requiring them to transfer people from other, less critical duties. They have.. requested that we provide an escort for a prisoner who is due to be deported today. Since the members of the League are either off planet or occupied ensuring that no further infiltration has taken place I was hoping that you would be willing to perform the task." He pauses. "You have had a busy few days. I will understand if you wish to turn this down."

Kon shrugs. "Who is it?"

"The prisoner…" Another pause. "I am sorry, this is a matter of some personal embarrassment for me. His name is J'onn J'aarkn, though he has taken to anglicising it to John Jackson." A holographic image appears of a green skinned man in a purple shorts and a pale blue short sleeved shirt. Aside from the skin colour his general shape matches Human norms far better than Mister J'onzz' 'Martian Manhunter' shape. He's even slightly overweight. He certainly doesn't look very threatening. Of course, for a Martian that sort of fat is just a way of concealing malleable bulk.

M'gann's eyes widen. "I didn't know there was another Martian on Earth!"

Mister J'onzz sighs. "Frankly, in his case I would prefer it if there were not."

Kon takes a closer took at the picture. "What did he do?"

Ring? _**O**__oooooh_. Oh. I can't say I'm _entirely_ surprised.

"He entered the United States without an appropriate visa."

"Is.. that it?"

"He has also committed a variety of minor criminal offences. Mostly, they were as a result of his ignorance of Human society. He is not considered to be a serious threat and has agreed to leave of his own volition."

"So, why do you need us?"

"On the last three occasions on which the DMA tried to enable his return he arranged to not be at the launch site at the designated time. Your job is to ensure that he **is**."

M'gann shifts her attention from the picture back to her uncle. "When did he come here? **How** did he come here?"

"He made the journey here shortly after I returned home for the first time. Apparently, he had become enamoured with the Earth through the tales I told of it." M'gann nods. "He came in a Martian Bio-Ship of a somewhat older design than that which you and I use. It is currently in the care of the Channel Islands Air National Guard Station."

"He.. made the journey here on his own? How did he cope with that?"

"I am uncertain. I do know that he chose a time when Earth and Mars were as close together as possible in which to make his crossing."

She nods in understanding. "And that's in less than a week from now."

"Wait, if he's being sent back to Mars, why don't I just take him back?"

"I did take the liberty of offering your services. Unfortunately, the people responsible for releasing him are being very particular about handling things 'their way'. Your job will be to escort him to his leaving party and then to see him on to his ship. He is unlikely to turn violent but he is highly likely to attempt to escape through misdirection. M'gann, his telepathic abilities are far weaker than yours but he is.. **accomplished**, at shapeshifting. Are you willing to take on this task?" We look at each other for a moment, then nod. "Thank you. I will arrange for your entry to the Pitchess Detention Centre in San Fernando Valley in which he is being held. You are due to meet him in three hours."

**2nd January  
08:28 GMT -4**

"Paul? What is it?"

I take a moment to ensure that my face is a picture of cherubic innocence before looking around from my console at the front of the Bio-Ship to face M'gann. "Whatever do you mean, M'gann?"

"You've been.. _smirking_, ever since Uncle J'onn finished the briefing."

"I've.. just been assembling a record of Mister J'aarkn's time on Earth. He's been quite a prolific actor."

"Oh? I've been thinking about studying drama myself. Do you think he could give me any pointers?"

I lose it. Both hands go to cover my face as I bend over, snorting with laughter. "_I sincerely doubt it!_"

"W_hat_?"

"_Well…_" I move my hands away and take a couple of deep breaths before straightening up and leaning back in my chair."Ahhh. H-how about I start from the beginning. From what I can tell Mister J'aarkn came to Earth in nineteen eighty six. He never really made a secret of having super powers but he mostly pretended to be a green metahuman rather than revealing that he was a Martian. His Human appearance is based on a…" I pause to clear my throat. "On that of a man named Ronald Hyatt."

"Did Mister Hyatt complain about it?"

"If he did, it wasn't with the police. Why?"

"I just don't understand why Uncle J'onn has such a big problem with him. I'd love it if more Martians came to Earth. I mean, you're practically next door. If he could make the journey over twenty years ago I don't see why more Martians don't do the same."

"Well.. I.. can't answer the second question, but as to the first? Most of Mister J'aarkn's work has been in the genre of.. Adult Cinema."

Kon looks up. "Oh. Guess that explains it."

M'gann looks from him to me. "Adult.. Cinema..? Like, arthouse stuff?"

"No. Like, pornographic cinema, made for the sexual titillation-" Her face goes purple and her right hand goes to cover her mouth. "-of the viewing public. I couldn't find any footage of him in action that I'd feel _entirely_ comfortable showing you. Suffice to say, he-" And upon occasion, she or er or it. "-makes full advantage of his shapeshifting abilities." It was actually a little tricky to track down everything he'd ever been in due to his tendency to invent new identities and appearances for each film in a lot of his early work.

"Oh."

"I think the reason why Mister J'onzz dislikes him -aside from, you know, possibly bringing Mars into disrepute- is that after Mister J'onzz became active as a superhero… Mister J'aarkn appeared in a highly successful film called 'Martian Womanhunter', in which he took the role of a.. thinly veiled erotic take on Mister J'onzz' own time on Earth." M'gann stares at me. Behind her fingers I see that her mouth has fallen open. "It was _so_ successful that there have been a number of sequels… Anyway, after he became 'openly Martian' the immigration people started investigating him a bit harder."

Kon frowns. "Seems kinda harsh."

I shrug. "I'm not completely sure why they're being this aggressive about it but.. he **is** an illegal immigrant. Once his application for citizenship was rejected-" Despite his obvious unusual talents the judge felt that America was perfectly capable of generating it's own erotic performers and as such his skills didn't warrant a green card. "-the only question was how he was going to be removed. Since they've got no way to deport him back to Mars they're relying on him being willing to leave by himself. His lawyer convinced the court that sending him back when Mars was further away would be 'cruel and unusual', so they can only try to do it on a few days every other year."

"R-right." M'gann recovers a little. She's still bright purple though. "I-if he made the journey on his own… I don't know how he could have coped."

Kon thinks for a moment. "Some sort of suspended animation pod?"

"The people he showed around his Bio-Ship don't mention it in their report. Of course, if his model can shapeshift then there's no reason to suppose it would have been visible. M'gann?"

"Um. We do have animation suspension systems, but they're designed for medical use and not for space exploration. If he used something like that and something went wrong he could have been killed if there was no one else there to wake him up safely."

"Quite a risk. I wonder why he was so eager to come here?"

Kon shrugs and looks at M'gann. "Plenty of Earth people find aliens attractive." M'gann smiles and pushes her hair back over her shoulder with her right hand. "Maybe some Martians like Earth people."

"He's not.. going to.. _**do**_ anything, is he?"

"I've only got biographic details here. I don't know anything about his personality."

"I mean.. I don't really know much about.. Human mating." I raise my left eyebrow and glance at Kon. "I-I mean-! Not…_That_ part."

"Didn't Mister J'onzz give you a basic explanation?"

"Um, he gave me a talk about Human reproductive mechanics, but Martians don't work like that. I'm.. really just mimicking…" She glances at her chest. "**Some**.. things."

I glance at Kon again. **Is he aware-?**

"I've.. shown Kon what I really look like." **What I really **really** look like.** "Martian intimacy is more… Telepathic." Her face stills and she glances at Kon. "Not that we haven't **kissed**."

I raise my eyebrows. "I was there at New Year."

"And I've.. reconfigured my mouth to act like a Human mouth. Including sensitivity to touch. Normally we don't really even **have** lips."

"But this sort of thing wasn't covered in the videos Mister J'onzz sent you when you lived on Mars."

She nods, some of the blush fading. "It.. really wasn't. I.. can understand how it works, I'm just not.. comfortable with the idea of being the one _doing_ it."

"Hey." Kon gets up out of his seat and walks over to lay his right hand on her shoulder. "You don't need to feel pressured about it."

"I suppose.. if I wanted to know what it was like for a Martian… I could try asking _him_?"

"If he's been doing it professionally for this long he's probably got a slightly distorted viewpoint. Wouldn't Mister J'onzz.. be.. better able to provide advice?"

"I don't.. think he's been… _**Involved**_ with anyone since he came here." In fifty five years? I don't know him well enough to judge how probable that is. "This.. party we're supposed to escort him to..?"

"Most of the guests are co-workers. I.. doubt there'll be any… **Goings on**, if that's what you're worried about. You're both.. sort of.. under the California age of consent. I doubt Mister J'onzz would have assigned you to the mission if he thought that was a risk."

"I'm going to be a bit nervous about scanning anyone's mind though."

"Don't worry about it. My empathic vision will work just fine, and we can just tell him that he's not allowed to wander off."Maybe a new topic? "So! Excited about Garfield starting school on Monday?"

**2nd January  
06:12 GMT -7**

Our Department of Metahuman Affairs contact stands on the tarmac of the Channel Islands Air National Guard Station outside the hangar holding Mister J'aarkn's Bio-Ship. Our two hour advanced notice was plenty of time for me to transition us from east to west coast as well as go over Mister J'aarkn's case history in a little more detail and thoroughly check out the party venue. Just a normal house, though I did detect that it has most likely been used for 'professional purposes' fairly frequently. Nothing like that going on when I scanned it, of course. It looked like some of the decorations had been put up in advance. There doesn't appear to be a guest list… And I happen to know that Sara Smart lives in this area and worked with Mister J'aarkn on at least one occasion.

The Bio-Ship descends through the sky as M'gann brings it in to land a few metres away from the DMA official. Her name's Kate Spencer and she was the lawyer who handled their part in the legal manoeuvrings that led us to this point. She's wearing a dark blue suit with a mauve blouse. Nothing particularly interesting in her background, though she was involved in a few supervillain cases on the defence side before her employment by the DMA. I don't remember anything about her from the comics so with any luck she really is just a lawyer.

M'gann drops the ramp and I lead the way out. With a three hour time difference between east and west coasts it's not quite dawn here yet. Odd, really. I've spent so much of my time in the States on the east coast I haven't really thought about how wide this country is. The spotlights around the base give us plenty of light and in any case with the ring I don't have a problem seeing in the dark.

"_You're_ what the Justice League sent?" She doesn't sound all that impressed. Drawback of most of your work being secret-. "A Superman look-alike, Little Miss Martian and the Cake Man."

"I'll have you know that did wonders for fruitcake sales across the world. I may have single-handedly revived the market." A quick look into her soul tells me that she really wants Mister J'aarkn escorted off-planet with as little fuss as possible. Looks like she was also involved in their previous attempt to get rid of him.

"Please tell me you can fight with that ring as well?"

"Naturally. We wouldn't have been sent if we weren't up to the job."

"Okay, look." She makes brief eye contact with all three of us. "I know an oncoming car crash when I see one. That mess at Belle Reve meant that the guys who were supposed to be handling this got called away to Louisiana, because apparently a telepathic shapeshifting criminal is 'low priority'. All the planning we put into moving 'John Jackson', wasted. So here's what's going to happen: you're going to follow me and do exactly what I tell you and _maybe_, **maybe** by some miracle we'll actually get rid of the bastard this time."

O-_key_. Clearly I underestimate how irritated she is. That's the problem with analogue abilities I suppose. "Um, I could just fly him back to Mars myself. It would only take a couple of-"

"No!" I raise my eyebrows at her vehemence. "This is still -_technically_\- a voluntary repatriation. If it looks like we're forcing him to leave his legal team will be all over it. I **do not** want him wiggling out of this."

Kon looks nonplussed while M'gann looks curious. "Why are you so angry? He hasn't hurt anyone…"

"Because he's been making us a laughing stock. Last time he somehow managed to get the people I had escorting him drunk and filmed them doing a conga line at his **third** leaving party. I **do not **_**want**_ there to be a fifth." She takes a moment to collect herself. "Please tell me you have regular clothes with you?"

Kon shrugs. "Yeah, but, why?"

"The last thing we need is to make this more of a media circus that it already is." She looks past us at the news vans parked at the perimeter fence. "If they find out we had to call in superheroes to handle this…"

"Say no more." A wave of orange sends my armour to subspace to be replaced by a plain black suit with an orange tie. After a moment's hesitation I add the black sunglasses to complete the look. M'gann looks at me, smirks, then shifts her own clothing to match mine. She can't make glasses and instead of a tie she has a blue cravat with a red 'x' at the neck.

Missus Spencer closes her eyes in a clear prayer for divine patience. "You really..? Fine. Fine." She looks at Kon. "What about him?"

Kon sags and turns to re-enter the Bio-Ship. "Give me twenty minutes to get this armour off."

Ye-eah. Maybe I should see about getting him some armour that's both useful and ring friendly? No idea where I'd ever _start_with that. Maybe Io will have some ideas next weekend?

Missus Spencer checks her watch. "We've got about fifty minutes before we're due to pick Johnson up." She looks at M'gann. "Do you know enough about Martian spacecraft to tell me whether or not his ship is in working order?"

"Yes, but Martian Bio-Ships are living creatures. She should be able to heal herself."

Missus Spencer's jaw tenses for a moment, then she looks over towards the hangar holding Mister J'aarkn's ship. "I'm not going to try loading him onto a ship that doesn't work. Or get this far only for him to **tell** me it doesn't work with no way to confirm that for myself."

"I.. can take a look if you like?"

"This way." She turns away and heads towards the hangar, the two of us following on behind.

**You want to borrow some sunglasses?**

**I can barely see as it is. Why are you wearing those?**

**Because after the last few days I've run out of serious. Making sure a porn star gets on his flight out of the country just doesn't register on my 'important' list.**

**That doesn't explain the glasses.**

Just ahead of us Missus Spencer presents her identification to the guard at the hangar entrance. It gets checked and she receives a nod. I step up and hand over my own identification. The Justice League emblem gets a raised eyebrow and a glance at Missus Spencer. She nods and the guard hands it back. I walk past him as M'gann shows him hers.

**A physical joke that combines the tomfoolery of wearing sunglasses at night with becoming a ridiculous caricature of a government agent.**

**That's not very nice.** M'gann gets the nod and the three of us head into the hangar. **She's taking this very seriously and Uncle J'onn is relying on us to do a good job.**

I throw up my hands, earning a look of puzzlement from Missus Spencer. **Why? Worst case scenario here is that a.. _basically_ law abiding man stays in the country a little longer than he should.**

Missus Spencer leads the way towards the other Bio-Ship. It's a medium-dark green colour with purple detail and rather than the cabin and sweeping wings of M'gann's Bio-Ship this one is a sort of crescent shape, passenger area at the front and wings sticking out and back from the sides. It's currently resting on some scaffolding which holds it off the ground. A quick scan shows nothing that could reasonably be described as a weapon.

Missus Spencer turns to M'gann. "Well?"

M'gann walks towards it and holds out her right hand towards the hull. "He's… **Old**. A lot older than my ship."

"How old? Will it fly?"

M'gann nods. "He thinks so. How old? I don't know. I don't recognise his design and he's been asleep for too long for me to tell from a simple probe."

"Can you open it up?"

"Can I open **him** up?" Missus Spencer doesn't react to the correction. "Of course." A hole opens in the hull under the right wing. "Do you want to see inside yourself?"

Missus Spencer shakes her head. "It wouldn't mean anything to me. Just check it over."

M'gann nods and floats up inside. Should I follow? May as well.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

**2nd January**  
**06:13 GMT -7**

I jog merrily down the Bio-Ship's boarding ramp, smiling at our DMA contact. "Kate! Good to meet you in person at last."

"Grayven. Welcome to California." She's a little less effusive than I am, but she smiles as extends her right hand to me. I take hold of it in my own for a moment before bending down to raise it to my lips. She glances aside and rolls her eyes. "R_eally_."

I release her hand and turn back to the Bio-Ship as my team mates proceed out, Mister Tawny to the fore. "Kon, M'gann, Mister Tawny, I'd like to introduce Katherine Spencer."

Kon and M'gann stop just behind me while Mister Tawny strolls forwards in order to sniff her. He spent the Belle Reve episode glowering at prisoners who looked like they might have been thinking about trying to escape again. He'd much rather have come with me but he's rather hamstrung by his lack of low lethality options. Tooth and claw marks don't make for good PR. Mister Tawny's head comes up to the top of Kate's abdomen and he out masses her massively.

She leans away from his a little. "You have.. a Tiger?"

"Yes, and he's quite friendly. Try rubbing his ears, he always likes that."

She makes eye contact to see if I'm being serious, realises that I am, then somewhat tentatively extends her right hand to the left side of his head. She tries delicately stroking the fur. He understands my intent and leans into it, encouraging her to press harder. Once she does so to his satisfaction he closes his eyes and makes a sort of throaty grunting noise to indicate that he's satisfied. Seeing a big cat behave in what might be called a kittenish way usually does wonders for calming people down about him being around and it appears to be working on Kate. "How long have you had him?"

He half opens his right eye and I imagine that if he had distinct eyebrows it would be raised. "We've been together a little over two months."

"Did he.. grow up in a zoo?"

"No, a jungle in India. His manners are all him."

One last head nudge and Mister Tawny sits back on his haunches. Not sure that's a good idea, it makes him taller. He'd probably have been better off lying down… Oh, doesn't matter. Katherine looks my humanoid team mates over and her eyes rest on M'gann. "Grayven seemed pretty sure that J'aarkn wouldn't make any trouble for you."

M'gann nods. "He _probably_ won't. I won't know for sure until I speak to him myself."

"Why is that?"

My smile broadens. "Martians have a skin colour based caste system." Kate blinks at me in surprise. "The Whites who make up about a third of the population are at the bottom, then the Greens who make up most of the rest. Reds like M'gann are at the top. Royalty, essentially. Obedience to them is ingrained within the Martian psyche."

"They…" Kate looks at M'gann for confirmation and gets a nod. "I had no idea." Something occurs. "Wait. Martians _**shapeshift**_. How can they have skin color based discrimination?"

"We're also telepathic." M'gann looks a little distant for a moment. "Even if we can't tell by looking at someone what type they are, **they** know."

"Well I…" Kate takes a moment to digest that. "For all the legal tricks his team have employed he hasn't once tried requesting asylum. I'm going to assume that he's genuinely green."

M'gann nods. "If he was White I might not have ordered him to leave. Martian society isn't exactly.. friendly, when you're White." Kon puts his right arm around her shoulders.

Katherine frowns. "I don't.. think he's White. But… How did that sort of prejudice develop?"

M'gann shakes her head. "It's been like that for so long… I don't think **anyone** knows."

Kon shrugs. "Why does it ever develop? Maybe everyone needs to look down on someone. Kryptonians never had a reason for looking down on clones and aliens but they did anyway."

Looks like Kate didn't know **that** either. "Superman..?"

"Superman grew up on Earth. The stuff his birth father taught him about Krypton… They wanted him to think the best of it. And… I guess… _**Be**_ the best of it."

She turns to me. "And.. your people?"

"Apokoliptians aren't prejudiced. We hate everyone equally. But we mostly take it out on the weak." There's a slight tension in the skin around her nose. "Why so surprised?"

She shakes her head slightly, looking down. "I.. guess I just hoped… It was something a species grew out of."

My right hand goes to her left shoulder. "Well… Maybe Humans will be lucky." I think for a moment. "Or maybe finding an _external_ hate figure will work."

"Um?" M'gann makes eye contact with Katherine and glances in the direction of the hangar. "Could we... See his Bio-Ship now?"

"Yes, of course. Please, come this way." M'gann takes the lead, walking alongside Kate. Kon and I follow along behind with Mister Tawny dawdling along in the rear. Not an accident; he's watching our backs while pretending to have merely animal intelligence. Must remember to speak to him about using further augmentative formulae on him before his growing divinity makes it impossible.

I'm inclined to follow M'gann's lead on this. I did suggest to her that I could switch Mister J'aarkn's Guardian programming off. She pointed out the obvious problem that he'd be going back to Mars. Not only would that blow the secret -I don't really care about that but apparently she does- but it would also put him somewhere where I wouldn't be around to keep him under constant observation. Her scans haven't shown any significant deviation since I made the change to **her**. There **have**been a few behavioural changes; she doesn't avoid fire anymore and has a little bit more self confidence. The randomly striking matches pretty much stopped once the novelty wore off.

"So… How did you meet her?" I look around at Kon as he nods at Kate.

"We haven't **met**, not in person. After that whole thing with Vertigo nearly getting away with mass murder I wanted to get in contact with someone inside the DMA who might be willing to help me understand the way things work here. A few enquiries later I ended up having a free and frank exchange of views-"

Kon smiles. "And she still talks to you?"

"We actually have a lot of common ground. We both think that the insanity plea is too readily granted, that justice is delayed too long… I think she might slightly resent that I get to deal with the **simple** end of things."

"Yeah, about that." Kate turns her head in my direction. "You seemed to be taking your time with those prisoners you apprehended."

"If one is concerned with minimising damage to the locale, bringing down a supervillain isn't as easy as we sometimes manage to make it look."

"Uh-huh."

"Beating up Vertigo is a pointless exercise. Once his stabilisers come off he can barely stand upright on his own. Anyway-" I turn back to Kon. "-we've been exchanging ideas for a while now."

"About what?"

Kate's face hardens. "About making sure supervillains actually get punished for their crimes."

Kon looks at her and then back to me. "Aren't they.. getting punished now?"

"Vertigo went on worldwide television and admitted to killing hundreds of people. He did so in a state with the death penalty. There is no doubt at all of his guilt and he doesn't have diplomatic immunity any longer. Why was he alive to escape?"

Kate nods. "I don't have a lot of good to say about the Chinese government, but they didn't waste time killing the people responsible for Roanoke Island. That's how it's supposed to work; commit the crime and you take the punishment. Instead, we spend years -not to mention millions of dollars- on trials and appeal after appeal." She shakes her head. "If **we'd** got our hands on them, they might have been in Belle Reve for years before we did what the Chinese did. That needs to change."

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

**2nd January  
06:17 GMT -7**

The inside of Mister J'aarkn's ship is clearly set up for one person. The pilot's seat is quite different in shape to the one M'gann uses. I spend a moment trying to imagine him sitting in it as M'gann walks over to the nearest control panel and kneels down to touch it. How would..? Ah, of course! He wouldn't have looked Human when he got here. Mister J'onzz would have mentioned if he'd known him personally, he probably wouldn't have had a particularly good description of Humans to work from. Assume that he is a bit more massive than M'gann… If he was lying on his back, his leg's **there**… His arms would reach the controls left and right there and there.

M'gann squints slightly. **He's.. in good condition.**

**Surprised?**

**A little.**

**That's a bit harsh.**

She shakes her head. **No, not like that. Mister J'aarkn's been on Earth for decades. Even if he knew what he was doing, maintaining a Bio-Ship without Martian equipment and experts isn't easy.** I nod, and walk over to the front of the cabin. No view screen, I note. In fact the interior is fairly featureless. **I'm going to have to take my Bio-Ship back to Mars this summer so she can get checked out.**

**Anything I can help with?**

She give me a small smile. **Not really. There probably isn't anything wrong, but better safe than sorry, right?**

**Oh, definitely. I'd rather like it if I could get a trained power ring technician out here.** I nod at the panel she's touching.**Find out anything useful?**

She sits back. **Not much. This ship is… He's more mentally simple than mine. Annnnd.. I'm not his pilot. I'm not authorised to view all his files.**

**Can you.. press the matter?**

**Maybe. But I don't want to risk damaging him by going too far. Navigational logs should be okay…**

I nod. Can't do much to help with that. **Will he fly?**

**I think so. I'm not familiar with this model but everything looks okay.** Her eyes glow. **Okay, here we go. He was made in… _**O**_**h**.**

**What?**

**He's older than I thought. Quite a lot older.**

**How old?**

**About a hundred and sixty Martian years old. That's about-**

**Three hundred Earth years. Was something interesting happening on Mars back then?**

She shakes her head. **All sorts of things, but nothing I can think of that would make a ship special. And if it _was_ special then the Martian government could just have asked Uncle J'onn to pick it up.**

**Does the design mean anything to you?**

**He _looks_ like an old design, but it could just have been retro.** Her eyes dim. **He isn't as fast or as manoeuvrable as mine. I think his top acceleration might be higher. There's some medical systems that mine doesn't have, but he's locking me out of them.**

**Makes sense. If he was planning on staying on Earth he'd want to know that he could be fixed up if he got injured.** I frown. **Your Bio-Ship _doesn't_ have medical functions?**

She shrugs. **Do Earth cars come with built in doctors?**

**I suppose not.**

**My Bio-Ship isn't really anything special, not by Martian standards. Aside from the plasma beams, I mean. Those don't come as standard.**

**Still say gravitic accelerators would have been better.**

**We couldn't be sure they'd be compatible.**

**But plasma based weapons give away the invisible ship's position every time they fire!** I frown for a moment. **Why does a civilian aircraft come with invisibility?**

**It's whole shapeshifting thing is based on what a lot of Martian species can do naturally.** She shrugs. **It's actually more effort to make one that _can't_.**

**Does.. that mean it can move through solid objects?**

She shakes her head. **No, that requires telekinesis. There might be some military ships that can do it but civilian ones can't.**

**Martians have warships that can move through solid objects?**

*Um…** She thinks for a moment. **In theory? They just use telekinetic fields for defence… But I think the system _could_ be adapted.** The telepathic amp designs in Lantern Stewart's database aren't for an organic technology using species. That might be something I could work on. Maybe if I had some sort of Martian Sephtian..? "Well, that's it." She stands up. "As far as I can tell the ship _can_ get him home. I don't know how he'll manage all that time on his own though."

**What, a week? I know you find isolation unpleasant…**

She shudders. **I don't think I could explain it to a Human, not so you could understand what it's like for one of us. Even when we're not actively contacting the minds around we Martians can always feel them. Being in deep space… Or even just away from an inhabited planet… Imagine if you were inside your room back in the Mountain, and whenever you opened the door there was just _nothingness_. The wardrobe was full of nothing, the draws were full of nothing and all the pictures had nothingness over the everyone's faces.**

**That would be quite weird.**

**There probably isn't a real Human equivalent. I tried to explain it to Henry as well and he didn't really get it until I shared the feeling.** "There isn't really anything else I can learn here. We might as well go and meet Mister J'aarkn."

There's a brief glimpse of yellow in her aura. Ah, yes, that makes sense. "Are you alright with meeting him in person? I don't know how good your mental control is but…"

"He's going to spot me. Being White." She shuffles uncomfortably. "I don't think he'll make a big deal out of it. At worst he'll just refuse to talk to me."

"You don't think he's White himself?"

"He might be… But it isn't very likely. I suppose I'll find out when we get there."

"I don't know how good your shields are, but could you just switch back to your civilian appearance and pretend to **not** be Martian?"

She shakes her head. "Not if I wanted to use telepathy. Martian telepathy doesn't feel like Human telepathy and he'd pick it up right away. Well, unless he was **really** weak, anyway."

"How about if he'd been away from other Martians for twenty four years?"

She shakes her head. "No, that wouldn't be enough. Particularly given how rare Human telepaths are. I.. suppose we may as well get it over with." She looks over at the place on the floor where she made the entry hole.

"Before we do that… Um." I suppose she doesn't exactly have anyone with whom she can talk about this particular difficulty in her adaptation to Earth… "If you wanted to talk about… Human style _tessellation_ mating-" Her eyes widen and her face goes purple again. "-if you had any questions and wanted to discuss it with someone who wouldn't find it weird or laugh… And wasn't your uncle. You know where to find me."

"Uh huh." She nods once and then drops through the floor.

**2nd January  
06:28 GMT -7**

"…could work on the Fortress tomorrow or something?" Through the front view screen I get a brief look at the Pitchess Detention Centre as M'gann brings us in. Missus Spencer got permission for us to land next to his isolation cell. I rather got the impression that the prison governor will be glad to be rid of him.

"No, it's fine." Zatanna sounds only mildly disappointed, but that could just be her being polite. "I've got school work I need to get done anyway." She was still asleep when we left and thanks to the geomantic wards the Ophidian and I transmuted into the rock of the mountain I can't scan inwards from the outside easily anymore.

I feel bad about leaving her behind. I stuck a note on her door but I felt obliged to say something directly as well. "Okay then. We're coming into the prison now. I'll let you know if anything interesting happens."

"Bye."

I dismiss the phone construct and lower my left hand as the Bio-Ship touches down. Missus Spencer is the first onto her feet. It seems that she _really_ wasn't comfortable being on board. I suppose that if my first exposure to Martians was Mister J'aarkn I'd be a little hesitant to sit down on a shapeshifting seat as well.

Kon stands next. He joined in on the suit wearing but he looks more than a little uncomfortable. I'm not sure he's ever worn one before. He starts to leave the cabin before realising that M'gann is still sitting down and turning back to her. **M'gann? Come on, you don't have to be worried about this jerk.**

**I.. know.** She stands somewhat hesitantly before girding her mental loins and joining him before the two of them head down the exit ramp together.

I take a moment to check that my glow is to minimum and run through a few of the basic mental defence exercises Mister King taught me. I also put a neural chaff grenade and a electrolaser pistol in holsters on the inside of the jacket. Probably excessive but it doesn't hurt to be sure. The carbon nanotubes in the jacket -plus good tailoring- ensure that it doesn't deform and give the game away. Sunglasses? Check. Everything in readiness I follow Kon and M'gann out of the Bio-Ship.

Missus Spencer leads the way towards the building which houses Mister J'aarkn. "The party starts at seven AM local time. He gets three hours at most, then we're flying him back to Channel Islands." Looks like quite a nice area, actually. There are quite a few trees and contrary to my expectations there's a fair bit of grass on the ground as well. In front of the entrance a couple of guards in riot gear wait along with the governor. Assistant Sheriff McDonald looks relieved to see us, though I do detect a slight frown when her gaze passes over the three of us. "Sheriff."

"Kate. We getting rid of him for real this time?"

"We'll do our best."

She nods at the three off us. "What happened to-?"

"Belle Reve." She turns back to look us over as well. "These three were what the Justice League offered to replace them."

"The Justice-?" We get another look. "**Seriously**? What, they leave their costumes at home or something?"

I take a few steps forwards. "I'm sorry, Assistant Sheriff. I rather got the impression that you wanted this low key. If I was mistaken..?"

"And who are you supposed to be? The Incredible G-Man?"

"Orange Lantern two eight one four. Yes, the one with the cake." I hold out my right arm to indicate my colleagues."Superboy and Miss Martian."

"Supe-? And _another_ Martian? Is that really a good idea?"

"Human telepaths are a little thin on the ground."

"Ah, well, you can't do any worse than the _last_ guys." Missus Spencer's face stiffens slightly. "Come on, may as well get this over with." The guard on the left mutters something into his radio and I hear the door unlock itself with a clunk. He goes through first, followed by the Assistant Sheriff, Missus Spencer and the three of us. Inside is a well lit reception area and another reinforced door with two new guards. I raise my left eyebrow at that. "Half my guards line their helmets with tinfoil these days."

M'gann looks puzzled. "That wouldn't do anything to stop a telepath."

"Sure, you know that and I know that, but after you've had Jackson shapeshifting into… Some extremely **disconcerting**forms while you're on duty you'll try most things."

"What sort of things?"

Assistant Sheriff McDonald shudders slightly as the inner door is opened. "Put it this way: he really liked his job and appears to want to continue practicing it here." She pauses before entering. "Or half the time, _her_ job."

"You mean he..!"

"Hey, Terri!" On the other side of the bars inside the next room an overweight green skinned man lounges on his bed. "Come to see me off? Or are you finally taking me up on-."

Assistant Sheriff McDonald's face hardens. "I'd rather be intimate with a pig."

He nods in agreement. "I can do pig! How about I pencil you in for-. Oh. Hey Katie. Time already?"

"Jackson. Do you have your things?"

He waves his right hand dismissively, then swings his legs around to hang off the edge of the bed. "Nah, Larry's bringing everything I'll be taking back to Mars to the party. Can't believe you're making me have it in the morning this time."

"It'll be the last time, Jackson."

"Yeah yeah, I'll be good." He looks directly at me, smirk on his face and eyebrows slightly raised. "Eh? Eh?" I still my mind, letting everything flow away. After a moment he looks slightly puzzled, then shrugs. "Tough crowd. But just because you're a hard case-" His form shifts and melts, transforming… Into a slightly oversized copy of Jade. "-doesn't mean all your friends are." He hasn't quite got the voice right. Okay, how is he doing that? He didn't get it from my mind, I doubt he got it from M'gann. She… **He** struts towards the bars in a most unJadelike fashion. "How about you and me have some fun together at the party later?" I remain impassive. "No? Then how about-" He shifts again and **hell no**.

The corners of my mouth are most certainly turned down as I look at Zatanna's face. "Knock it off. She's under age."

"She may be, but I'm not." Her voice he's getting exactly right. "How about if I mature-" Her secondary sexual characteristics become noticeably more apparent. "-it up a notch." Zatanna's casual wear melts away, being replaced by negligee and a translucent night dress. "You could pretend I'm her older cousin?" He adopts a faux-innocent pose. "Get in practise for the real-."

"Mister J'aarkn-."

Missus Spencer walks up to the cell door, grabs him by the collar of his nightie and pulls him against the bars. "Jackson, if you don't knock it off right now you'll go to the party in an _ambulance_."

He thinks for a moment before nodding cheerfully. "Sounds good to me! You got a paddle or you want me to-"

****J'onn J'aarkn.**** He shudders and rapidly regains his own form, his right hand going to his forehead. ****Behave yourself!****

"Ughugr." He blinks heavily. "Forgotten what that was _like_." Missus Spencer lets go as he regains his feet. He shakes his head once and then looks over at M'gann, his expression one of curiosity. "Folks back home really miss me enough to send a Manhunter to pick me up?" He looks a little closer. "H_ey_. J'onzz? That you? When did you join the _Feds_?"

"My name is M'gann M'orzz and if you start shapeshifting into my friends and hitting on people I _**will**_ mind blast you again."

"But I can hit on people looking like this?" He looks himself over. "I can work with that. Now lets get this show on the road!"

**2nd January  
06:33 GMT -7**

Kon politely but firmly pushes Mister J'aarkn down into the front right seat on the Bio-Ship before taking the seat just behind for himself. Missus Spencer remains standing behind the pilot station and I'm at mid left. Mister J'aarkn has a quick look at the dashboard before swivelling the chair around, clasping his hands behind his head and tilting the chair back with a smile. "A_aaah_. All the comforts of home. This a new model?"

"She's newer than yours." M'gann moves her hands and the Bio-Ship rises off the ground. It's about a twenty minutes flight at Bio-Ship cruising speed and the party isn't due to start until seven.

"You take a look at him? What did you think?"

"I'm babysitting you because Uncle J'onn asked me to. I don't particularly want to talk to you."

He rolls his eyes with a sigh, then turns a little more to look at Kon. "Hey stud muffin. See something you like?" He grins lasciviously, raises his hands to chest height and makes beckoning gestures with them.

"I don't think you're my type."

"How about-?" M'gann glares at him. "_Oooor_ not. W_aaaaa_it, are you two..?" He wiggles his right index finger back and forth between them. "Oh, hey, sorry. Hand and.. whatever off your beefcake." He turns his chair back around, looking at Missus Spencer for a moment before turning his attention to me.

"Mister J'aarkn-."

"Call me 'John'. Seriously, I've been John for twenty five years now. You ask for Mister J'aarkn and I start looking for Daddy."

"How old are you?"

"Earth years?" He looks up at the ceiling as he tries to work it out. "Let's see… Sixty four, so… A hundred and.. forty seven. Yeah, that's it."

"As I understand it, Martians mature at about a third of the rate Humans do?"

"Sort of. For emotional maturity when you're young that's probably true, but the amount of life experience is pretty different. I'm middle aged by Human standards but you can't just project Human behaviours onto me."

"So you coming to an alien planet and having as much sex as you can get **isn't** a Martian mid-life crisis."

"Hah! No, different psychological drives. Martians don't really…" He glances at M'gann, who refuses to meet his eyes. "You know how Martians fuck, right?"

"I heard a brief description."

"Not hormonal at all. We don't even _have_ hormones like you do. What happened to me… Yeah, okay, I know I'm weird, but it doesn't have anything to do with a Human male feeling the urge to sow his seed before he decays into physical obsolescence."

"So why _did_ you come here?"

"Funny story, actually. I'm a biology teacher. College level equivalent." He nods his head to the side. "Used to be anyway. I think I'm still qualified but I haven't done any teaching…" He leers at Missus Spencer. "Well, you know. I've done _that_ kind of teaching, I mean I haven't done **classroom** teaching. Not since I left Mars."

"Theoretical to practical?"

"I _could_ do a lecture on the mating practises of just about any Mars native lifeform you care to name if you like, but no. Mars is _parched_. Next to nothing alive on the surface outside of a few preserves and everything in the caves is regulated, monitored… Not much for a biologist to do. When-" He turns to M'gann again. "-J'onzz started transmitting back to Manhunter headquarters from Earth I got fascinated. A whole new world, filled with fascinating alien life completely unknown to Martian science."

"I rather got the impression Martians weren't very interested in us."

He nods. "I think it's something to do with telepathic data transmission. When one of us passes on an image or an experience, the recipient gets the context and perspective of the one they got it from. It's like they lived it themselves, and if they did _that_…"

Kon nods. "Why bother doing it for real?"

Mister J'aarkn shrugs. "Or it could just be a modern cultural thing. My Bio-Ship was part of a limited run they made back when we were a bit more outgoing. It's designed to keep one person alive and sane while they travel from one place to another in space."

M'gann reluctantly look at him. "How does it do that?"

"In a bunch of different ways. When you turn the system on it sort of keeps you half asleep, and creates this ghost sensation of there being other minds around."

"Half asleep in space?"

"The thing about space, its basic distinguishing feature…"

"Right. Empty. It's not like they were going to be doing interstellar flights or anything. Your Bio-Ship may be more sophisticated but the basic technology is the same. No need to check things every few hours, the telekinetic sensor means you can easily avoid any obstacle big enough to actually harm you. There's nothing to be awake _for_ until you actually get somewhere. The original idea was for there to be a crew of three, but you can fly the thing with just one."

Kon frowns. "So how come it never got used?"

Mister J'aarkn sags slightly. "Before my time. The guy I bought it from seemed to think it was only ever a proof of concept type thing. You know, 'if we were going to do this, how would we do it?'"

"So, what? You heard about a planet of fascinating new sentients and hopped in a ship so you could go and have sex with them?"

"Wouldn't _you_?" I give him a level look. "No, it wasn't quite like that. We'd known that you Humans were here for a while. We don't do a lot of deep space astronomy like you do but since Mars doesn't have much of an atmosphere we have to do a lot of local space monitoring. We'd been seeing artificial lights on Earth for centuries, we'd picked up your radio transmissions for decades… I mean, we had no idea what you were saying but we knew there was structure to it. Some of the really powerful telepathic types could even j_uuu_st about hear your thoughts when the planets were close together."

I look at M'gann and she nods. "It's barely noticeable unless I really strain-"

Mister J'aarkn's eyes open wide as he looks at her. "You're _that_ powerful?"

"Yes. I am."

"I thought I was just being oversensitive when you shocked me earlier. Whaw." He frowns. "What you hiding out here for then? Wouldn't some tut-? Oh." M'gann looks a little sad and Mister J'aarkn looks like he's realised that he's put his foot in it. "Um. Right, sorry."

Would M'gann's educational prospects be curtailed due to her being White? Thinking about how racism affects people on Earth I suppose I shouldn't be completely surprised but wouldn't there be _somewhere_ for her to exercise her talents? Interesting that the lecherous ex-teacher doesn't care. "I'm still not sure why you made the trip."

"I got interested on what life was like here. I don't think he remembers me but I was part of the group J'onzz shared his memories with when he got back. Spent a couple of years analysing them, trying to understand how the biological systems here worked. Of course, he wasn't a biologist so the information you already had wasn't quite there. And as I kept looking… Darndest thing, I just.. started to find the way you people look appealing. Male, female, young, old… You're all so different from Martians anyway that you're clearly not appealing to the same parts of my brain as an attractive Martian would. I just.. wanted **that**. You, basically. Nearly went crazy with excitement and fear when I finally decided to make the trip. Was.. longer than my journey home will be and I did the stupid thing of _not_ using the sleep system. Hoohoo, let me tell you; **never again**."

M'gann's starting to get interested now as well. "Then what happened?"

"What happened is I started hallucinating. Constant _things_ crawling around at the edge of my visual field. Even _after_ I changed the shape of my head to get three sixty degree vision. Then the voices started. Think I had a long conversation with one of the walls but it's all a bit blurry. It was a twenty three day journey and I barely made **two**." M'gann shudders slightly. "You went the same way?"

"I.. didn't need to stay on the ship for as long, and I had Uncle J'onzz there."

"That would be better. Still not great?" She shakes her head. "Guess that's why we Martians never really got into space travel."

Kon frowns. "Couldn't you just build a bigger ship? If there were a lot of Martians on board it wouldn't be such a problem."

"Sure, yeah, we could do that. Problem is no one wants to." Mister J'aarkn shrugs. "The whole thing's just such a bad experience that we've been put off trying. It's like, if you wear a heavy metal gauntlet you _can_ stick your hand in a sink waste disposal unit, but why would you?"

M'gann nods. "Our military use ships like that, but they don't really get big enough to go on long voyages."

"How did you..? Actually, how did Mister J'onzz manage it when he went back the first time?"

"Uncle J'onn used an advanced meditation technique. _And_ he altered the atmospheric composition of the air inside the Bio-Ship so he'd feel sleepy all the time."

Mister J'aarkn leans forwards. "Sure, I can believe that of _him_, but how'd _you_ do it?"

"My.. uncle Ma'alefa'ak was born without the ability to use telepathy."

"O**oh**." Mister J'aarkn looks pained. "The poor bastard."

"Well, he lives on the surface. I visited him a lot when I was younger. I guess I just got used to the isolation. I mean, not **totally**. I couldn't have made the crossing if Uncle J'onn hadn't been there."

"Right. So, I just about manage to keep it together well enough to turn the system on. The rest of the trip is kind of a blur… Not sure if that's how it's supposed to be or if that was just because of me being a dummy about not using the system from the start. From how the food stores on board decreased I must have been eating _something_ but…" He turns his palms upwards as he shrugs. "First thing I remember seeing clearly was the Earth when I reached high orbit and the collision detector came on. I was still a bit w_oooowh_, you know? But I recognised the shape of the landmass J'onzz said he'd been on and nudged my Bio-Ship in that direction. I came down in the Death Valley National Park. You know how desolate that place is, right? When I staggered out I was so messed up I wasn't sure whether I was on Mars or Earth. Plus, I was still in, you know, **alien mode**."

"Alien mode?" Missus Spencer frowns. "That isn't how you look?"

"What, a like a green Human? You really thought that? H**aah**!"

"_**Jackson**_!"

"Oh, come on! I'm a shapeshifting alien! I didn't settle on this face for _years_."

"So, what, you look more like Manhunter? With red eyes-?"

Mister J'aarkn sniggers as he shakes his head. "Not even close. He picked that shape because he wanted something that looked **mostly** Human but also a bit alien and intimidating. What we actually look like would-" He jazz hands. "-blow your fragile, Human-."

Kon shakes his head. "You're not _that_ weird."

"Oh, ruin the rest of my fun why don't you. Wait a second." He looks back and forth between him and M'gann. "You went with green Human and showed them the real you _anyway_? You guys must be pretty tight."

I nod and Kon crosses his arms across his chest. "Yeah. We are."

"So you were wandering around Death Valley in Martian mode..."

He grins again. "Scared the _shit_ out of these hikers."

Missus Spencer doesn't appreciate the humour. "Jonathan Adams, Evan Morris and Vincent Myers."

"Aah, Jonny. You never forget your first."

"You sexually assaulted him."

"I did **not**! Okay, so I wasn't exactly who he thought I was at the time…"

"What did you do?"

"Since I didn't have any real idea where to go I just headed towards the nearest minds I could feel. They'd made their camp in this little.. gully, to keep the wind off. It was night time, and what with them having a fire going that ruined their night vision they didn't see me until I stepped **right up** to them. I just sat down next to, ahh…" He looks at Missus Spencer. "It was Evan, right? I just sat down and they're like 'AAAAAAGH!' Evan and Vincent run away. Jonny tried to but he tripped up and hit his head. So seeing him hurt pretty much snapped me out of my funk. I knew a bit about how Human bodies worked so I had a rummage around the campsite for a medical kit or whatever. Dressed the wound, propped him up and had a rifle through his mind."

M'gann looks scandalised. "You did **what**!"

"I'd terrified two guys and gotten a third injured! I didn't want that to happen again when he woke up. So, I got the image of someone he liked from his memories…"

"Madison Burnett."

"Okay, I know it looks bad now, but at the **time** it seemed like a perfectly rational thing to do. I could use my knowledge of Human physiology to replicate the bits he hadn't seen-."

"But not her clothes."

"I didn't realise those were important! I thought, familiar face, that'll give me a chance to talk to him. Okay, not talk exactly, I didn't know the language and hadn't got the hang of the-" He puts his right hand to his neck. "-Human voice box yet. When he came around he must have thought he was dreaming or something. I asked him if there was anything I can do to make him feel better… He had some suggestions…" M'gann's gone purple again. "I didn't exactly know what the big deal was, not until I started mirroring his brain pathways."

"You mirrored his brain pathways!?" M'gann looks genuinely shocked. "But you only just met him!"

"It was in the name of science, Miss M'orzz. Science! And **wooow** did I ever not regret it. Guess you've got _that_ stuff to look forwards to."

"Leaving the Erotic Adventures of a Martian Womanhunter aside for a moment…"

"Well, eventually he went to sleep, I went back to my Ship. Since I'd learned the local language from him I spent some time listening in on radio broadcasts-"

"What about the other two? If they were alone in Death Valley…"

"Yeah. I mean, to a Martian? Death Valley isn't so scary. If I'd known more at the time I'd have gone to check up on them. Just didn't occur to me. I found out later that they went back in the morning to check on Jonny." He grins again. "See, they thought the screams-."

"I get the picture."

"So I hid the Ship and used my new knowledge of Human society to walk around a few towns, listen in on a few more thought processes. Eventually I started visiting libraries. I don't know if you know this, but these days on Mars writing things down is really only done for ceremonial purposes. Everything else is telepathically encoded. If I'd realised I could have gone to a library first... Just didn't think of it."

"But how did you go from anthropologist to adult film star?"

He shrugs. "I had to eat, needed a job and I enjoyed the work. Something about Humans just works for me in a way Martians… Eeeeehh, kinda don't. I could mimic the stars of the day, assume male or female form or whatever else the director wanted. After a while, I switched over to focusing on _that_ rather than my studies."

M'gann looks like she's swallowed something bitter. "Did you do **any** actual research?"

"Oh, sure! I've got a kuru pendant full of data. I don't know if anyone back home's actually going to care about it, but I've got it." He sits back with a sigh. "Good times. I'm really going to miss this place."


	47. Page 26

**2nd January  
06:56 GMT -7**

It's only a little after dawn when we arrive at the house at which 'John Jackson's 4th Bi-Annual Leaving Party' is being held. The building is fairly large but there isn't quite enough space in the garden that I'd feel comfortable leaving the Bio-Ship on the ground. M'gann sets down in the car park to drop the rest of us off and then takes it up over the top of the house. We aren't on a flight path here so unless someone decides to fly a kite or something it shouldn't be a problem. M'gann can float herself back down invisibly when she's done.

Mister J'aarkn hurries up the path to the door and presses the doorbell while Missus Spencer, Kon and I follow on behind at a more sedate pace. Interesting that he doesn't fly. I mean, it isn't as if he needs to pretend anything any more. I know that M'gann's telepathy is unusually strong but I actually have no idea how her other abilities compare. Probably worth finding out at some point.

A moment later the door is opened by a heavily made up Asian woman. "J_ohn_!" They kiss each other's cheeks. "You're early! Did you escape from prison again?"

He shakes his head. "Sorry, Casi. I think they got me this time."

"Oh no! What have they done?"

"Well, you know. Set a thief to catch a thief. J'onzz decided to sic his niece on me."

She looks past him at the three of us. "Which one..?" I hear a soft tap as M'gann touches down on the paving stones, then she makes herself visible again. "Nice suit." Miss… Casi turns back to Mister J'aarkn. "For a moment I thought she was going to be like you."

"My job _is_ going to be open." He half turns back to her with what I am coming to recognise as his signature leer. "What do you say, Miss M'orzz? Interested in showing another generation of Humans the wonders of **Martian physiology**?" He wiggles his eyebrows in an attempt to wring as much embarrassment from her as possible.

And.. she.. doesn't go for it. Just as she starts to purple again she tosses her head and shifts form. "No." Her hair shortens and turns black and her skin goes from green to pearl white. "And I don't want your friends mistaking me for _you_, either." Interesting. I've seen her White Martian form but I've never seen her wear white skin while Human shaped before. Monochrome's a rather intense look. I like it.

"Ah well." Mister J'aarkn puts an arm around Casi's waist as he strolls into the house. There's a small porch which leads into an open plan living area. "Anyone you guys want to meet while you're here?"

"**No**." / "I don't really watch this kind of thing." / "Is Miss Smart likely to be in attendance?"

Kon and M'gann both stop dead to stare at me. Mister J'aarkn shrugs. "You'll have to give me more than that. Lots of people in this industry use different names. My first few movies were made with me listed as 'Jonathan Jerking'. Heh, or Joanne."

"Sara Smart. I believe she performs as 'Sally Sonic'."

Mister J'aarkn comes to an immediate stop. "That'ssss… Dangerous tastes you got there, kid." He actually looks a little nervous. "Listen, she's.. not good company. Why don't I just find you some nice-."

"I'm really more interested in her personal history."

"Oh. Well, I'll tell you now she doesn't talk about _that_."

"Will she be here?"

"Maybe." Miss Casi slips free of his arm and heads off into the house, looking just as uncomfortable as he does. He turns back to me. "Yeah, probably. She's got an invite anyway. Metaporn's not a huge genre." He sighs. "Ah, who am I kidding? She'd never miss an opportunity to wave her ageless tits in the sagging faces of her former co-workers. She'll be here."

"I understand that you've worked with her before."

"Yeah. **Once**." He flaps his hands dismissively at me. "Hey, it's your life. Talk to her if you want, just leave me out of it." He turns away, looking through the door at the far end of the room. "The four of you going to follow me everywhere? I kind of want to say 'goodbye' to my friends without you lurking over my shoulder the whole time."

Missus Spencer folds her arms across her chest. "I'm sticking to you like-." The leer reappears. "I'm **staying close by you**. The three of you can stay back. Check the perimeter or something."

"Rightyho." **Miss Martian, are we networked?**

**Yes. And don't worry about Jerking...** Kon and I look it her. **Ah, about **J'aarkn** listening in.** Mister J'aarkn exits through the far door in the general direction of the heated swimming pool. Not sure it's really hot enough at this time of the morning, even in California. **His telepathy is fairly weak.**

**Any idea how he knew what Jade and Zatanna look like?**

**I think that was me.** Kon shrugs uncomfortably. **I felt.. something in my head. I was thinking about girls you might, you know. I'm sorry, but it was getting hard not to.**

**That's fine. Far better it be someone like him than someone actually hostile. Might be worth you joining in when Mister King next comes in though. I've found it really helpful for stopping that sort of thing.** He nods. **For now though, you and M'gann should probably stick together. Don't want him mentally nudging you off in the wrong direction.**

**Right.**

**M'gann, you can pick out his mind from just about anywhere around here, right?**

She shrugs. **He's the only other Martian around. Unless he's secretly a **lot** better than I think he is there's no way for him to hide from me.**

**Feel free to wander the grounds, then. Try to keep track of everyone who turns up and report anyone we should be concerned about. I'm going to try following Mister J'aarkn from a distance, just in case he tries anything with Missus Spencer.**

M'gann nods and turns to go back out through the front door. Kon goes to follow and then hesitates for a moment. **Um.**

**I know it's not standard bodyguarding protocol but our main concern is _him_. Mister J'onzz was right, he's got no history of violence.**

**No, it's…** He uncomfortably avoids meeting my eyes. **You wanted to…**

**Do you want to know why I asked after Miss Smart?**

M'gann looks curious too. **It does seem a little out of character. Not that… Whatever you…**

**Miss Smart is a Human enhanced by magic. I'm mostly interested in her as an object of study.**

Two slightly relieved nods. **That makes more sense. What can she do?**

**She doesn't age. She's in her seventies now and doesn't look any different to how she did in her late teens. If that could be replicated… I don't even know what it would do.**

Kon looks thoughtful. **Why was J'aarkn so afraid of her?**

**She's had a rather hard life, and.. as a result, has become a complete bitch. She takes particular pleasure in seducing married men, videoing their time together and sharing the video with their wives.** Sometimes it's like they do everything they can to make you not want to help them. **Or vice versa. I mean, I'm a bit disappointed at how weak willed they're being but the pattern is a bit obvious.**

**Is she a criminal?**

**Nothing criminal about adults making sub par choices. Even with encouragement. If I'd found a smoking gun I'd already have acted on it.**

**2nd January  
07:22 GMT -7**

I take another look around the pool area. **Anything interesting happening where you are?**

**[sigh] A few people have asked how long I've been in… You know, in the profession. I was sort of hoping that the suit would scare them off.**

**Should have added sun glasses and an earpiece.** Pretty good turnout considering the time of day. There's a little bit more flesh on display than I'm used to, but really no more than I might see on a Happy Harbour street in summer. The heavy makeup and.. um, 'forthright' mammaries are a more noticeable difference but I guess off the job people are just people. **Kon, anyone asked _you_ that?**

**One guy did.**

**Conner glared at him so hard no one else has dared try.**

**If it's getting to be a problem just hang around Missus Spencer for a bit. Everyone here knows why she's here.**

**Has J'aarkn done anything?** I can hear a note of frustration in Kon's mental voice.

**He got a drink and then starting doing the rounds. Right now he's talking to Mister Hyatt.** I look over to them. From the body language and the way they're laughing I'd guess that they were pretty good friends. Behind them Missus Spencer checks her watch.

**Probably just waiting for us to drop our guard.**

**Maybe. Or maybe -since he isn't a supervillain- he's still capable of recognising an unwinnable situation when he sees one.**

**Are you able to look inside him and see for sure? I'd.. still rather not scan him telepathically if I can help it.**

**Already done.** I double check anyway. **Small amounts of yellow associated with us, Missus Spencer and going home and from the amount of orange I'm seeing I'm going to say that he was being completely honest about how desirable he finds Humans. I can't see anything related to concrete escape plans.**

"Hey, are you with the Metahuman Department people?"

I half turn and-. Oh my goodness, it's porn star Barbie. **Excuse me a minute.** "I am indeed. What can I do for you?"

She beams at me. "You're English!"

"I was born in England, yes. I'm legally a Themysciran national."

"Themy-? Wait, like Wonder Woman?"

"Indeed."

"How did you manage _that_?"

"I did some work for Her Highness and -since I was stateless at the time- she.. made the offer."

"So are you, like,-" She makes a circling motion with her left hand. "-the only guy in the whole place?"

"One of two, though as I understand it male Olympians are free to visit whenever they like."

She pats my chest with her right hand. "Bet **you're** popular!"

"My first visit is next weekend so I can't say for certain. But I.. rather doubt it. Either that or we'll get mobbed as soon as we land."

"Wouldn't _that_ be fun."

"Probably more awkward than fun." I glance across at Mister J'aarkn. Nope, still there.

Miss… Ring? Atchford? Okay. She follows my gaze. "Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about John. He's a really nice guy. Why are you people going after him like this?"

"I'm afraid that I don't know. I only became involved in this case today, and in any case I wouldn't have any authority over the decision. From what I've seen of Missus Spencer she appears to be taking his previous 'no shows' somewhat personally."

"Is she allowed to do that?"

"Dispassionate professionalism might be the ideal but I doubt anyone will fault her. The conga line thing-."

She giggles. "Oh yeah, that was funny."

"-really didn't help matters. I have to ask, were their drinks spiked or something?"

"Hey, everyone here's clean." I raise my eyebrows and she looks away. "Theeeey might have had a bit of vodka in their beer. The.. barman probably misheard their order."

"Uh huh."

"So.. what do you do when you're not throwing people off the planet? You said you worked with Wonder Woman?"

I stare at her for a moment. "I can't believe it. It actually works."

She tries to frown but is defeated by botulinum toxin. "What works?"

"Glasses. Sorry,-" I shake my head. "-private joke. Um, I suppose the most accessible part of my job involves metal trading."

She looks at me sceptically. "Commodity trading? What, you work for the DMA in your spare time?"

"No, the three of us volunteered for this because they were short staffed. I've actually never worked for them before."

"Private security?"

"Superhero."

"Get outta _town_." I raise my palms to display the glowing sigils of the rings for a moment before closing them again. Her head jerks back slightly and she blinks repeatedly, first looking at my hands and then at my face. "Wait, I know you! You're-!

"Yes, the.. Cake Man." I'm starting to know how Lex feels.

"No, not that. You did that interview after that thing with all the kids disappearing."

"That wasn't exactly my proudest moment either."

"Really? 'Cause I thought it really brought home what a lot of people went through. I mean, my two spent the whole thing watching TV or sleeping, I didn't even think about what happened to kids on air planes. And, superheroes just usually seem to have it all together, you know? So perfect and distant and you were just so _genuine_."

Um. Right. I hadn't really had any interest in fallout from that interview. Hadn't bothered asking Ms Cobert how it played. I have another look around the poolside as I try to work out how to reply. "Thank you, I-" Oh, look who's trying to sneak away. "Would you excuse me for a moment?"

"Hey, look, I didn't-"

I stride in the direction of the woman heading for the door into the house. "Excuse me?"

"Wha-?" She stops and turns around. Brown skin, curly shoulder length hair and a facial structure unlike his usual faces. "Oh, you're one of the people looking after Jackson, right?"

"Mister J'aarkn, knock it off."

He shakes his head. "I'm not-."

I tilt my head forwards and let my glasses slide down my nose a little, revealing my orange eyes for a moment before pushing the glasses back up. "Empathic vision. You might have changed physically but you haven't changed spiritually." I raise my right index finger. "Don't mess me about again."

"So, yeah, they got the Talk almost as soon as they **could** talk." Miss Atchford leans back in her chair and raises her right hand expressively. "I'm not _proud_ of my job exactly, but I'm not going to lie to them about it. And I definitely don't want Paige getting pregnant at nineteen like I did."

"I'm a little embarrassed to admit it-" I look around the room. "-especially _here_, but I honestly had no idea how Human reproduction worked until sex education class in Primary School." More of Mister J'aarkn's fellow performers have drifted in since his first 'just testing you', though I don't think the party has reached critical mass as yet.

"So.. you were how old?"

"Eleven, I think."

"Doesn't sound unusual to me." We both consider that line and start to smirk. "I mean, yeah, okay, okay. I didn't get started _that_ early."

"I'm glad to hear it. I don't ever remember having '**The** Talk' with my parents at any point. I mean, I'm sure they'd have been willing to talk about anything I'd asked…"

"Do you have that.. abstinence.. thing.. in England?"

"Not outside of religious institutions. I mean, I might be a little out of date, but…" I shrug and shake my head. "For me it was always one of those crazy things Americans do."

She feigns offence. "Oh yeah?"

"Silver rings, playing rugby wearing body armour-"

"Oh, you do not get to mock football!"

"-calling it football despite the fact that the players spends most of the time **carrying the ball in their hands**! How did that name even catch on?"

"I don't know, that's just what it's called!" We share a giggle. You know, I kind of thought this job was going to be annoying, but I'm actually quite enjoying talking to Miss Atchford. "What do you call it in England then?"

"American Football. Because you're the only people who play it."

"Oh, that is not true! They play it in Canada."

"They do?" Ring?

"Yeah, I dated this Canadian guy for a while who couldn't stop talking about it."

_Uhh_, traitors. "I was unaware of that. But, still, US and Canada." And Australia, sort of.

"How long have you been in the US anyway? Or do you just fly over?"

"A little over six months, and I **do** live here."

She gets a little more serious. "How'd you get a green card?"

"I.. didn't. To start with.. I was technically on a sticky wicket but-"

"A _what_?"

"Um, cricket? The three sticks behind the batsman which the bowler aims for is called a wicket. 'Sticky wicket' means a difficult situation, just as a batsman might experience on a waterlogged pitch. Anyway, **yes**, I was technically in the country illegally-"

"Ohh. So it's okay for _you_ to do it, but John has to get thrown off the planet."

"The difference _is_; he **can** go home. I come from a parallel universe. I have no way to go back. I suppose I could.. build a habitat on the moon or something." That could actually be interesting anyway. "But otherwise there's no where for them to send me **to**. And anyway, now I have a Themysciran diplomatic passport, so I'm here legally."

"And that.. Kon guy?"

"Born in the US. I suppose he should really have joint citizenship."

"And the albino Martian girl?"

"Ah-uuuuhhh." Actually, what _is_ M'gann's status? It's never really.. come up. "I don't actually know."

"Ah hah! She's an illegal immigrant too!"

"I'm sure her uncle sorted.. something out…" Ring? Oh, no he didn't. Megan Morse legally exists but M'gann as M'gann doesn't. "I think Justice League facilities count as extraterritorial…" Though that only helps as long as she never leaves the mountain… I might need to talk to her about that.

"No, no, that's fine. One rule for her and another for John. Seems perfectly okay to me."

"Look, if I was the one making the rules I wouldn't kick **him** out either. Missus Spencer's really got the bit in her teeth over this whole thing, I don't know… Did he do something to trigger this whole thing?"

"I don't think so. I mean, he _might've_? He's pretty libidinous off-set. Maybe he hit on the wrong girl? Or, you know, guy."

"Or turned into a Dog and humped the wrong leg."

"Hah! Long as it was only a leg! Yeah, I can see him doing that. I mean, he's a great guy to work with, you know? Most of the time a girl looks like she's getting off in a porno she's just faking it, but with him? You.. **usually**.. don't have to. I guess it comes from being a woman part of the time."

"Or his telepathy. He knows what his partner likes and he can feel it when they like it."

"Huh. Yeah, could be. He's actually a good person to get paired with if you're just getting into the business. Not like Ron the Hedgehog." Her eyes widen. "You need to know what you're doing if you're doing anything with _that_ thing."

I nod. "I can imagine." Actually, where is Mister J'aarkn?

"Are your Martian and Kon a thing?"

"They're dating, yes."

"Lucky guy."

"They haven't quite got that f- _oh for goodness sake_!" I get to my feet. "Would you please excuse me **again**?"

"Why?" She nods as she realises. "What's he done now?" I hold out my right hand. She takes it and uses it to come to her feet and I transition us to the first floor bathroom. "Whoow. Is that-?" She spots Mister J'aarkn. "Ow, eww!"

He's bent over the toilet, his head, arms and upper torso extended into a narrow column that is vanishing down the pipe. Damn, that's nasty. I reach down and tap him on his right hip. I mean, I _could_ intercept him before he gets away but I'd really rather not.

"Kinda busy here." I blink as a mouth appears on his lower back. "It would be a **big** help to me if you could-" An eye appears near the mouth. "-go and distract-" The eye focuses on me. "-my… Oh. Hey, Orange Lantern! I was just.. doing some plumbing."

"Uh-huh. Well, when you're done, I'll pull you out and clean you off, shall I?"

**2nd January  
07:45 GMT -7**

"…chocolate sauce!" The man introduced to me as Dwayne looks up from the pool table and grins as he makes eye contact. "So that was the last time I worked with _those_ assholes." I shudder theatrically and he chuckles as he returns to his shot. Dwayne is black, homosexual, and -from the string vest, short shorts and innuendo- clearly very much at peace with both characteristics. He takes aim at one of the striped balls -the American version of the game being played with striped and solid coloured balls rather than yellow and red ones- and takes a shot at the neatly arrayed balls. He doesn't use as much force as I would have done and as a consequence they remain fairly clustered up. He stands up, studies the table for a moment and then turns around, offering Miss Atchford. "Bobbi? You playing?"

She waves him off with a shake of her head. "Oh… No… Not really my game."

Dwayne shrugs and turns to offer it to me instead. Ah, why not? "Okay, but I should probably warn you-"

"What? You some kind of limey pool shark or something?"

"No, I'm dreadful at the game." I walk up to the table, trying to get a feel for the layout. "I really mean it. You may want a helmet."

"Hey man, I _always_ want helmet."

I wince as I bend slightly to check the shot I'm thinking of making. Sure, the ring could easily calculate the optimal trajectory and force, but the point of this is to have fun, not own all with an alien supercomputer. Okay, I _think_ I can get the solid yellow one. Maybe. I bend a little further, put my left hand on the felt and bring the butt of the cue back-.

"Oh, _hello_!"

I close my eyes for a moment. "Hate to be a prima donna about this Dwayne, but could you _possibly_ move a little further away?"

"No problem, man. No bigger black fan of Madonna than me!"

W-? No, never mind. I thrust the cue forwards, hitting the white ball cleanly and sending it into the yellow. Agh, angle was slightly off and it hit the green as well and it's… Well, at least Dwayne won't be able to pot it either. I straighten up and offer him the cue back. He makes a point of running his right hand down the shaft before taking hold of it. I step away from the table as he brushes past me and raise my eyebrows at Miss Atchford. She shrugs.

"So… Dwayne, how did you meet Mister J'aarkn?"

"Who?" He focuses on the table, walking around to the far side to get a better look.

"John, Dwayne. His Martian name is J'onn J'aarken."

"Really? I thought that was just his movie name."

"Most Martian languages use telepathy rather than the spoken word, but that's basically what it sounds like."

"Huh." He leans down to take a shot, using it to break up the ball cluster a bit more before holding out the cue butt first to me across the table. Again, he keeps his hand in place as I pull it free. "Was kind of going through a dry patch. See, there's work in gay porn, but there's more money in straight stuff. More people buying it. But since most of the people buying it are guys, they're mostly watching the girls. They're like, fucking them through you, you know? But they're all fat and hairy and whatever from spending all their time jerking off at their computers, so if you look _too_ good, that's **no** good. Gay porn, no, you gotta look good for **that**. My body's my professional tool, know what I'm saying?" I nod and take aim at the ball with the green stripe. "And I _can_ fuck girls. I mean, I'm usually thinking about something else at the time, 'cause if I _can't_ I'm going to need a helping hand from Mister Blue, but I can do it."

I make the shot and-. Aww, it hits the side of the pocket and bounces out. "I'm not hearing about Mister J'aarkn's role in your career."

"Agent got me a job, fucking this ridiculous big titty thing. Script needs her to suck me off and give me a titty job. No way I could pretend I was doing a guy. The whole thing was doing nothing for me at all. They wanted a cumshot and I couldn't deliver." I pass him the cue and he leans forwards to make a shot almost immediately. The blue solid bounces off the yellow stripe and goes nowhere important. "Then, suddenly, I look down and there's this eight inch cock dangling down her leg. Now, I didn't sign up for no tranny movie but that **definitely** wasn't there when we started."

"Did that.. help?"

"Yeah, it helped. Like, half my movies are tranny movies now. Turns out, long as it's got a cock I don't much care about the rest." He stands up, looking contemplative. "Never would have found that out if it weren't for him."

"Ah. Well then, I'm happy for you."

"Real shame he's going away."

"Look, I get that he's a good guy. And I really hope-" Dwayne passes me the cue back. "-thank you, I really hope he can come back legally. But, right now, he's had all his appeals and he lost."

"I guess." Okay, even I can't miss-. Yes! Solid red number seven goes down the middle left pocket. I move around the table to take aim at solid purple. "You hang out with a lot of other superheroes?"

"From time to time. Please understand that I can't really-" Aagh, another miss. I pass the cue back. "-talk about most of what I know."

He takes a look at the table and then looks back at me. "You ever meet Superman?"

"Yes, a few times. I mean I don't.. know him _well_ or anything. Are you a fan?"

"Something like that. Got a copy of his 'S' tattooed on the head of my-"

"**Oh really?**"

"Yeah. Because of how super it-"

"I-. I got it. I _don't_ think I'll mention that to him if you don't mind."

"Not sure how you'd bring that up in con-"

****Get out!****

"-versation." A plume of water erupts from the pool as I look around. A somewhat stunned and bedraggled Mister J'aarkn swims slowly from the point of impact towards the water's edge. "Where'd he come from?"

**M'gann?**

**He tried 'just taking a look' at my Bio-Ship.**

**Everything under control?**

**How much longer do we have to stay here?**

**A couple of hours. Are you-**

**It's fine, he's just… Ugh!**

"Flying practice."

"Looks like he's _out_ of practice. You got any tattoos?"

"I'm sorry? Oh. Yes. Covered in the things."

"For real?"

"Tattoos and a few brands."

He raises his eyebrows and makes eye contact with Miss Atchford. "That's some heavy duty shit you got there."

"They're practical rather than decorative. You can get spells tattooed or branded onto your body and I needed a way to be more resistant to magic. Though speaking of heavy shit… What can you tell me about Sally Sonic?"

**2nd January  
08:24 GMT -7**

"Simon!" Mister J'aarkn embraces his lawyer with a smile. "Good to see you!" He's shape shifted his clothing into swimming shorts but otherwise has kept his slightly overweight Human form.

"John." Mister Leas hugs him back, if a little less enthusiastically. He's wearing a Hawaiian shirt and fawn coloured trousers. "Sorry I couldn't come up with-"

"No, no, it's fine." He pulls back a little, some of the sadness he feels showing on his face. Missus Spencer doesn't appear to be moved by it. "I'm just grateful you managed to put it off **this** long. Did you bring it?"

"Of course I did, John." He looks around for a moment before spotting a coffee table. "Shall we?"

Mister J'aarkn nods and they sit on the well cushioned chairs set up on either side of it. Mister Leas takes a small presentation case out of his pocket, sets it on the table and then pushes it over. Mister J'aarkn looks relieved. "Oh, you have no idea how glad I am to get these back." He turns to Missus Spencer. "Why'd you take these off me, anyway? I'd have thought you'd be glad for me to have something else to occupy my time."

"No alien technology in prison, Jackson."

"But they're just data recording devices! Look." He opens the case, revealing three gold coloured metal disks. Each one is about twelve centimetres across and divided into three concentric circles. The outer ring is blank, the middle ring is textured with what might be a representation of snake scales and the centre circle has what looks like it's supposed to be a representation of a Martian face. "Harmless." The case also contains a thin gold chain, which he attaches to one of the pendants before putting it around his neck.

Missus Spencer raises her right eyebrow. "Oh yeah? What's on it, your back catalogue?"

"Sure, but not _just_ that. There's a copy of everything I know about Human society on here. If I'm having to restart my life on Mars I need something to work with."

"I dread to think what they'll think of us learning about us from _you_."

"I don't know what you're complaining about. I **like** Humans." He turns back to Mister Leas. "Haven't I always said how much I like Humans?"

"Hey." Dwayne nudges me. "There she is." I follow his gaze as Miss Smart walks in behind the lawyer. Her hair is done up in a high ponytail and she's wearing a plain white t-shirt with calf length trousers of red denim. Her whistle's on a chain around her neck, tucked in to her t-shirt. She looks… Friendly. Innocent, even. I suppose that explains her appeal. "You _sure_ you want to do this?"

I look across the room to where Kon and M'gann have taken up position. **M'gann?**

**Her mind is… Ugh. It's... She's exactly like they said.**

**If it were easy, it wouldn't require **us**. Will the approach Dwayne suggested work?**

**Probably.**

**Is provoking her really such a good idea? This isn't exactly a tough assignment and Missus Spencer wants us to keep a low profile.**

**I won't start anything, I just need to get a closer look at her.** Miss Smart walks around the seats, leans down over John's shoulder and whispers something in his ear. He keeps it together better than he did when we talked about her earlier. Looking into her I see orange, red and yellow, yellow of the outwards, 'inflicting on others' variety. The texture of the orange is a little off as well. Not exactly a desire coming from herself, not exactly one imposed from outside…

"Because if you're not, we can just do the smart thing and head back to the pool table." He pauses. "Or we can go somewhere and you can show me your tattoos."

I turn back to look at him and give a slight shake of my head. "I don't know, Dwayne. Maybe she's right. Maybe I **am** just that shallow."

He gives a slight wince, but carries on with the script anyway. "You're being too hard on yourself. She was just having a bad day. Just give her some time to calm down-"

"Hello Dwayne." Miss Smart's right behind me. Sounds like she's kept her original accent. Either that or she's done what I've done and accentuated it due to being surrounded by the colonials the whole time. "Who's your friend?"

"Ah, this is Paul. He's one of the people making sure John gets his flight this time."

"Ohhhhh." She walks around the side of me and confronts me with a perfect pout. Puts me in mind of something Buffy might have done. "And why do you think John deserves to be thrown off the planet? Is what he's done so bad?"

"I don't make policy, Miss..?"

"Call me Sally." They did say she didn't like being called Sara Smart _**ever**_, so that fits. She goes from pouting to winsome. "Are you _sure_ you can't do anything about it? He's a really great guy."

No, it's like the blue half of her personality spectrum is just _gone_. That's really odd. "I'm sorry, Miss Sally-" She giggles. "-but the courts have made their decision. If he fills in a visa application properly I'm sure that his request will be considered the same as any applicant."

She leans her head against Dwayne's shoulder and I watch him tense up. "That's a real shame. I'll miss having him around."

That appears to be a genuine desire. I see-. Oh, goodness me. I suppose when you can't be hurt you can… A shapeshifter can reach places other people just can't. Seeing her essence like this makes the sensation rather more immediate than seeing a recording. I wonder if telepathy has the same effect on the user? "It's nice that he's got so many people willing to speak up for him."

"It really is." I just about manage to keep my face still. I saw red, but she doesn't..? It's just **there**, it isn't linked to anything. That doesn't make any sense! If I didn't know better I'd think it was getting piped into her from somewhere. "Say, I couldn't help overhearing you earlier. You said something about someone thinking that you're shallow?"

Yellow that time. I get a glimpse of a man's face and start running it through the ring's facial recognition program. "Oh, it's… Um, a friend of mine." I have the ring control my body language. 'Tough guy talking about something personal'. She's more likely to stay put if she smells blood in the water. "We had a… Well, a disagreement. I wasn't supposed to be working today… We had plans.. then.. this came up…"

"Oh, I'm sure your 'friend' is just annoyed. Have you tried calling her?" She blinks in surprise and then puts her right hand over her mouth. "I'm sorry, you didn't say it was a **girl** friend."

"Yeah, it… **She** is." Her acting is superb. Talented or a result of forty years working in the industry?

Miss Smart looks around, over to where Kon and M'gann are keeping watch over Mister J'aarkn. "Not _her_, right? Or is it? I can go talk to her if you think it would help?"

"No, not her. But I appreciate the thought." My scans of the whistle aren't showing anything special but my scans of _her_ are. Minute vibrations throughout her body. Sound as a conductive medium for a spell, maybe? That could work. Her brain isn't that of a sociopath. She _should_ still be capable of emotionally engaging with people. Why isn't she?

"Hey, Dwayne-" She straightens up and gives him a slight shove away. "Why don't you go get us a plate of crisps and some dip. This sounds like something Paul needs to get off his chest. I've always got a friendly ear for people in distress."

**2nd January  
10:12 GMT -7**

Mister J'aarkn looks at me sceptically as we walk across the airfield. "So what you're saying is, she's literally incapable of feeling hope, compassion or love?"

"I.. think so? What I do isn't like telepathy, and I don't have a planet full of other people who can do it with whom I can compare notes."

"Can't say I'm completely surprised." He ponders this information for a moment. "Is there something wrong with her brain? I'm not her biggest fan but if there's a biological basis maybe she could get it fixed."

"Not that I could see. It's weird; I kept nudging her to try and get an emotional response, her brain was lighting up in the right places but it didn't generate the normal emotional responses."

The guards on duty outside the hangar activate the mechanism which causes the hangar doors to start opening. Mister J'aarkn turns to look through the doors. "I'm sympathetic, but since I'm leaving the planet it isn't really my problem anymore."

"I was just hoping you'd.. picked something up."

He shakes his head. "Telepaths shouldn't go poking around diseased minds. Not without special training." He catches sight of his Bio-Ship and raises his hands wide. "Ahh! My boy!" His Bio-Ship responds by tugging on its clamps. Missus Spencer nods and ground crew remove them, allowing it to drift forwards. "Heh. Don't tell anyone, but I'm actually pretty bad at telekinesis as well."

M'gann gives the ship a quick look over and then turns back to Mister J'aarkn. "Your shapeshifting is pretty advanced, though. You can change far faster than I can."

"Well. That's biology. I've studied that, and it's not like I've been fucking twenty four seven since I got here. You attending an Earth college?" M'gann hesitates for a moment, then nods. "So… You're about.. forty, right?"

She shuffles self consciously. "Twenty four."

He blinks. "You haven't finished school on Mars? Oh, that's.. not a good idea. Especially with how strong your mental abilities are."

"I'm.. getting tuition here."

He shifts his head to match the one Mister J'onzz normally uses. "Military school? Look, I'm sure he's a great guy but he isn't a teacher. Manhunters don't get taught a lot of things you might-"

"No, there's a.. Human telepath."

He nods his head to the side. "That's a bit better. Still seems…" He thinks for a moment. "You got a shapeshifting teacher?" M'gann shakes her head.

"If that's a problem, I could ask if the Chinese have a Durlan they're willing to lend us."

Kon frowns slightly. "Or how about Plastic Man? He's a shapeshifter."

"Those might be able to teach application, but they can't teach technique like another Martian can." Mister J'aarkn reaches into his bag. "Ah, what the hey. I was sort of thinking about doing this anyway." He pulls out the case containing his amulets, opens it and takes one out.

M'gann leans a way a little. "I'm not.. sure I want to touch that."

"Oh, no, no, no. This isn't my **fun** recording. On this-" He holds it up. "-is everything I've learned about shapeshifting Human bodies. Twenty five years of practise from the point of view of someone with no small amount of skill if I do say so myself."

"I'm not sure I want your.. **skills**."

"You've got the shape right, but the nerve distribution? The internal structures? Hmm?" He looks at her levelly and she glances away. "You're dating an alien, Miss M'orzz. They have different stuff. Heh, and they do different stuff with it. And if you want to do stuff the way _they_ do stuff… Well." He wiggles the pendant back and forth. "It'll be far easier than working it out on your own.

M'gann reaches out to take it, then hesitates. "Don't you need this? Your research…"

"It's fine, I got a back up. I may be going home now, but I plan on coming back here eventually. And I plan on trying to get other Martians to come here as well. And that'll be easier if **you** make a go of living here."

"The, um…" She reaches out and takes the amulet from him. "Thank you."

"No sweat." He closes the case and returns it to his bag as his Bio-Ship drifts up to us.

Kon looks from him to the Bio-Ship. "If you're bad at telekinesis.. do you need me to lift you up?"

"I can float you up?"

"Nah. May as well leave the way I arrived. Katie, you wanted to see what Martians really look like."

"Not partic-"

"Like _this_." His body grows and reshapes, looking like… A green version of M'gann's true form. **Behold my majesty!** He spreads his arms wide. I think he's a little bit bigger than M'gann and he's noticeably more upright. The bits that are pale purple on M'gann are a slightly darker green on him. For some reason I expect his customary paunch to still be there in this form, but obviously it isn't. **Well? What d'yah think?**

Missus Spencer looks him over while I look towards the fence where the few news people who actually turned up are trying to get him in focus. "I'm under whelmed."

**Curses! Foiled again!** He puts his right hand on the hull of his Bio-Ship and a portal opens to the interior. **Oooooh kaaaaay. Wish me luck.** He puts both hands on the lip of the opening and tries to pull himself up. Long arms: excellent reach, not so great for exerting force. We let him struggle for ten seconds before M'gann takes pity on him and lifts him up with telekinesis. He takes a moment to find his feet and then turns around to look back down. **Thanks. I was about to ask for a Martian friendly step ladder. How far up does American airspace go again?**

"Jacks_**o**_n!"

**Kidding. Kidding. Okay, here I go.** His disappears inside and the hole closes up.

Missus Chambers watches the Bio-Ship carefully. "Orange Lantern. You can fly in space, right?"

"Yes, but I'm not spending the next week escorting him to Mars the slow way if that's what you're about to ask."

"No, but-"

The Bio-Ship jerks in the air then drops to just above the ground. **Whoops! Had the damn thing in reverse.**

"-I'd like you to make sure he at least gets out of the atmosphere. I want him to go home, but even more than that I want this case off my desk."

"I suppose… Kon, M'gann, you alright getting home?"

Kon look at M'gann and then back at me. "Actually, we thought we might spend the day here. Maybe fly up to San Francisco? Do some sight seeing?"

I nod. "Alright then. I'll just-" Mister J'aarkn's Bio-Ship tilts front end upwards and then accelerates into the sky, much to the excitement of the crowd on the far side of the fence. "-keep an eye on him. If you want me to pick you up when you're finished, you know how to get hold of me."

"Right, thanks. Um." Kon looks at M'gann, who's staring at the amulet in her hands. "You really going to use that?"

"I think I'll get Uncle J'onn to check that it's safe first. And not full of… You know."

"Good idea. Now, if you'll excuse me?" A nod from Kon and a wave from M'gann and I rise into the air before accelerating after Mister J'aarkn's ship. This shouldn't take all that long, but I don't want to turn into a permanent third wheel. Maybe Zatanna and I can get the work on the Fortress in after all?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

**3rd January**  
**06:29 GMT +8**

When I **first** visited the Great Ten I did so by appearing at their headquarters in the Great Wall complex. The name is a bit of a misnomer; while the facility is **close** to the famous world heritage site with which it shares its name it isn't located in the structure itself. Even if it was somehow practical to dig into the ancient structure the cultural ministry would have gone berserk. Rather, the facility is located in the Ordos Desert in Shaanxi Province on the grounds that unlike a major tourist hotspot no one had any reason to go there.

But that isn't where we're meeting today. The Dragonwing operates out of Anshan Airbase in Liaoning Province and with the death of Captain Han on Friday the place is buzzing with all of the scientists who will be involved in the process of bonding his successor to the craft. Given my positive working relationship with the Chinese authorities I was the one tasked with returning their ship to them and I took the opportunity to make them an offer. Father Box's files on Durlan technology are sadly deficient, and those I took from Jordan's ring were rather lacking in detail as well. In return for all data they possess on Durlan technology I would endeavour to make the next Immortal Man's name more than an empty boast.

I stand on the far side of the hush tube's portal which opens into the north most interior wall of General Yen's office. I can see in but while they know I'm here they can't see out. General Yen is sitting at his desk while Chairman Jiang stands just behind him to his right. The general isn't actually a direct part of the Great Ten project. He doesn't have authority over their personnel once they transfer over from the air force, but as a practical matter he has to be involved in matters like this as one of his responsibilities is locating and training potential future Immortal Men. When Captain Han died there were six highly skilled and trained hopefuls waiting to jump into his suit, but until they _do_ they're air force and they answer to Yen. The pilots on this base are also the ones called upon to give air support to the Great Ten's Xeno-Teams, though they usually aren't authorised to actually know what they're shooting at.

There's a knock on the door. The general just manages to avoid looking in my direction before straightening himself up slightly. "Come!" The door is opened from the far side and our preferred candidate marches through. Literally marches, legs and arms moving in a way which looks quite unnatural. Captain Chen is wearing black trousers and the Type Seven blue jacket, and he looks neither left nor right nor down as he approaches the desk, stamps to a halt and salutes the general. Yen returns it and Chen stands rigidly to attention.

Yen waves his right hand. "At ease, Captain." Without lowering his gaze at all, Chen shifts to the precise regulation definition of 'at ease'. Yen doesn't wince, but he does convey with eye movement along that he thinks his subordinate is being ridiculous. He looks behind the captain and nods at one of the guards outside the room, who closes the door. Yen takes a breath and focuses his attention on Chen. "As you are no doubt by now aware, Captain Han -the serving Immortal Man in Darkness- has died. Though you are not currently cleared to hear the details of 'how', his funeral will be on Tuesday. Obviously your attendance is mandatory." Chen doesn't move or otherwise give any sign of having heard.

Chairman Jiang's eyes narrow slightly. "Captain Chen, the Great Ten project already has a robot. It does not need another."

Chen's eyes widen fractionally. "I apologise, Comrade Chairman." Oh? I hadn't realised he was gay. "I merely wish-."

Yen shakes his head. "We didn't make our decision on the basis of how well you can stand up straight." Chen starts to tilt his head to look at him, then catches himself and stops. "Yes, that means what it sounded like. You have been selected as the late Captain Han's successor."

Chen barely moves, but his heart rate increases and his brain is moving into full happy mode. Now that he has confirmation of what he was hoping for he allows himself to actually look at his superiors. "Sir, if I may ask..?" They both nod at him. "Captain Han has not been seen on base since Thursday. How long..?"

"Friday."

"I… Forgive me, but is there a reason why I have not begun the bonding process already? The records on the previous pilots indicated that it can take several weeks to adjust to the Dragonwing's control system."

Yen picks up one of the dossiers on his desk. "Colonel Li Lok, the Dragonwing's first pilot. A highly decorated officer, perhaps the best in the air force at the time. Even with what we knew about Durlan technology from our previous encounters he lasted a mere eight months." He pushes the dossier aside and takes the next one in the pile. "Major Li Yi. No relation. With the radiation treatment and the new interface designed with what we'd learned from the Qinghai Incident, he lasted a little under two years before undergoing the same meltdown you saw Captain Wei undergo on the day you first arrived."

"I understand that, sir. We all do. It is a price which any of us would be willing to pay."

"But would it not be better-" I step through the portal. His head snaps around and he instinctively reaches for a sidearm he isn't carrying. "-if you didn't have to?" Chen looks to his superiors for some sort of direction but they remain impassive. "You are expensive, Captain Chen. Your education up to this point, all of the fuel and munitions expended while you learned to fly. And the time it takes to get a man to your level of ability!" I take a few steps towards him. "To say nothing of getting to the point at which you are skilled enough with the Dragonwing itself to be let out on missions with it."

"Captain Chen." Chen tears his eyes away from me and looks at Jiang. "The intent of the Standing Committee on Metahuman Affairs on this matter is to move to a situation where it is no longer necessary for us to sacrifice our brave servicemen in order to use the alien 'Dragon Wing' vessel. Mister Grayven has offered to assist us in the improvement of the pilot interface system. To that end he has been granted high level access to our records-" And they were actually surprisingly honest about that. "-concerning our encounters with the Durlan menace. You may speak freely in front of him."

Chen nods before looking me over once more. "I believe I have read your file."

"Did they get my good side for the pictures?"

"What is not in the copy you read-" We both turn to look at Jiang. "-is that Grayven is the person who handed the Roanoke Island criminals over to us."

"My pleasure."

Chen looks puzzled. "I understood that he…" He turns his head in my direction. "That **you** were working with the Justice League."

"I am. But those four needed to die. China had the means and the will where the League did not."

Yen looks up at me. "Have you had any success in tracking down the last of them? Klarion, I think his name is?"

"Mmm. _Some_. Work in progress." Tracking him down is simplicity itself; Nabu has shared a spell with Zatanna that would almost certainly draw him out. The trick is finding a way to harm the bastard.

"He is also the main reason why Celestial Archer is on detached duty at present. Grayven has the confidence of the Committee in this matter."

Chen nods. "What is required of me?"

I point at a clipboard on General Yen's desk. "When you sign the documents relating to your transfer, there's a section on 'technological, biological and xenotechnological' modifications. They added a page authorising arcane alterations. Sign it and we can get started."

"Arcane?" He frowns. "Magic?"

"Both alchemical and.. modifications to the structure of your soul. Simply making you tougher wouldn't extend your lifespan due to how the Durlan picotechnology works. Increasing your ability to regenerate the damage they cause would, but it might interfere with your ability to make an interface at all."

"So what will you do?"

"To begin with I will simply monitor what happens during the interface process. Durlan technology is advanced but essentially mundane. There's no reason to suppose at this stage that I wouldn't be able to simply remove it entirely from your body and then reset you to remove any lingering damage."

"Then I would have to restart the bonding from nothing."

"Yes. Far from ideal. What I'm aiming to do is a little more sophisticated. In fact I.. don't think I can explain it fully in a Human language. By modifying the layout of your soul I **should** be able to fool the universe into not allowing the interface to harm you. I make no promises; it may well take several attempts before I can get it to work as intended."

"My service to China comes first. But… I have no great love of the idea of my time as Immortal Man ending with my body liquefied." He turns to the desk. "Sir? May I?" Yen nods and Chen picks up the paperwork. "Sirs, if I may ask; what does he get out of this?"

Jiang looks a little less disapproving. "As well as access to our data, Grayven will be working with volunteers from our Xeno-Teams on systems of further Human augmentation."

"The Justice League have proven… Reluctant, to embrace my methods. Fortunately for me the People's Republic are a little more.. far sighted."

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

**2nd January  
23:23 GMT**

The florescent tube on the ceiling blinks and splutters as we stand in the small corrugated iron warehouse. Solidly constructed shelving runs around three walls, separated from the area John and I are standing in by what looks like a fairly heavy duty ward drawn in white paint on the floor. The shelving is three levels high, though presently only a small part of the shelves to our right have anything on them.

"Look, mate… I don't think it's working."

Each dead mouse has a little Nabu helmet, and is positioned in a protective circle decorated with an ankh. The circles on each shelf are connected in serial by copper wires which then go down the supports at each end to the focal point: Nabu's skull.

"We can't know that for sure."

"I think he'da done something if it was. He been back to Bialya since we visited?"

"Not as far as I know. " I shrug. "I can't monitor him the whole time. You're sure that the scry wards are working?"

"Since we're not up to our necks in golden ankhs? Yeah, they're working."

I study the room for a few moments. "The basic set up's working though, right?"

John nods. "Anyone touching that wire would be in for the shock of their lives."

"Okay, we can't measure its effectiveness against him directly. Can we?" He shakes his head. "How long have we got the warehouse for?"

"I paid for a month."

"Money really isn't an issue. Would a different animal work better?"

John thinks for a moment. "Zoroastrians consider Dogs to be orderly." I wince. "Don't suppose you could scrounge up a Lamassu from somewhere?"

"Probably not, and I draw the line at intelligent beings. If there's power in the circuit, it's got to be going **somewhere**, right?"

"Could be loss in transmission. Or maybe we're just not getting through his defences."

"I thought the bones-."

He throws his hands up. "I know, alright! It _**should be**_, but it **isn't**." He shakes his head and takes out a cigarette. "Look, it's your money. We can keep this place going long as you want. I've got something else I need to work on for a week or so, but any idiot can do the physical stuff. Circle, ankh, dead thing, wire."

I nod. "I'm going to assume that it **is** working, just not enough to affect him visibly as yet." I take another look around the macabre set up. "I can fill this up without it being a problem?"

"Yeah-. Well, the shelves, yeah. Don't just dump stuff all over the floor."

"Wasn't planning to." I look up to the ventilation system, where my -and Lantern Stewart's- contribution is humming quietly to itself. "Is the air purification system working?"

"Can you smell anything?"

"No, but my environmental shield tend to block out-"

"No, it's working fine. How long 'till we need to change the filters?"

"If all it's doing is absorbing gasses, a couple of years. Carbon chemistry's a universal constant. **That'll get cut down if you keep huffing ash into it, though**." He moves the lighter away from his cigarette. "This other project you've got going on. Anything I can help with?"

"Don't think so, mate. Bit of a get together of magicians, investigating some odd happenings. Doubt anything much'll happen and I've got your number if it does."

"Okay, but if it does? Don't hesitate, alright." He nods. "How was Tasmania?"

"Fucking miserable. Got to see a death camp through the eyes of one of the guards. Angie had to talk to the ghosts of the victims."

I tilt my head slightly to the side. "I'm not an expert or anything, but when you take your girlfriend on holiday somewhere, aren't you meant to go somewhere.. **nice**?"

He turns and walks towards the door. "Maybe I think it's fair warning. Not a lot of lounging on the beach going on in my life."

I follow on behind him. "You don't need to tell **me** how dangerous your life is. Maybe you just shouldn't go out with normal people?"

"She kept it together alright-" He turns the handle and pushes the door open. "-and we got the information." I follow him out and he closes the door behind us. "Might even have helped a few ghosts escape their death dream."

"Are any of the people you're calling in to help likely to be willing to help us with **our** problem?"

He gives me a humourless grin as he locks the door. "I'm a bit sceptical about them being willing to help **me**."

"I can bribe better than you. Plus, they don't hate me already."

"I'm told that helps." He thinks for a moment. "Nat Kuhn might be able to improve the rig we're using here. Alba's basically one of your lot already. She never knew Giovanni and I'm not sure where she'd stand on Nabu." He shrugs. "I don't think any of them have anything **essential**."

"What about Map?"

"He's handy, no question there. Why single him out?"

"Worst case… **Second** worse case scenario. We can't find a way to remove Nabu peacefully or easily and have to fight him while he's still at or near full power. He can teleport. How do we keep him in one place so we can hit him?"

John lights his cigarette as he thinks about it. "There's ways of messing up someone's perception. Not sure how we could hit him with a spell he couldn't.. just…" He pauses. "Ah, fuck me. Map could cover all of London. You want to fight him here."

"I don't **want** to fight him at all. But if you can think of somewhere better…"

"Bloody going to _try_." He leads the way down the path back towards the main road. "What's the worst case scenario, then?"

"Nabu finds out what we're doing and picks us off one by one as 'chaotic influences'. We still don't know what he did with the people he picked up on Roanoke. Or Onomatopoeia."

"Can't say I'm all that worried about what happens to mass murderers."

"It's the principle. Superheroes get leeway because they follow certain rules. Even Batman hands the people he catches over to the police for trial and sentencing. If someone in the Justice League has decided that they aren't happy with the status quo, if they want to start handing out punishment themselves…"

"Again, bunch of arseholes."

"Yeah, that's why I'm not kicking off about it already. But our society assumes that justice works in a particular way. If we let anyone have that sort of power, and there's no.. established and **agreed on** procedure for that to happen, then it's an arbitrary use of unaccountable power by someone who's doing it because they **can**." He doesn't look convinced. "You heard Nabu; **you're** a chaotic influence. You want him coming after you? Or your friends or family because they've been influenced?"

"Who watches the watchmen?"

"Everyone. And they have a rather depressing tendency to take their lead from us."

"What about when you do it, then?"

"Citizen's arrest, technically." He opens his mouth to make a smart response and I put up my hands. "**I know** I've been the beneficiary of that slack. That's why I try hard not to overstep. But I honestly think that Nabu considers himself the highest possible authority already, and.. that… Doesn't bode well for the rest of us."

**Homecoming**

**3rd January  
06:54 GMT -4**

The four of us wait patiently outside the external zeta tube terminus for Garfield and Missus Logan to arrive from Qurac. I haven't been back here since the first day I came to the mountain but aside from the grass getting a bit longer nothing much has changed. Kon and M'gann have their standard school bags containing the small pile of homework they were set over the Christmas holiday period. They're also carrying torches as the sun won't be up for another quarter of an hour or so and we're some distance away from where the street lighting starts. I hope Garfield doesn't get too jetlagged from the travelling back and forth every day. With the seven hour difference he's coming from early afternoon to early morning and he'll be going back from Mid afternoon to late night.

Diana's wearing a pink coloured formal blouse, dark blue business jacket and a matching pleated knee length skirt. It's slightly strange seeing her dressed like that. When I've seen her out of uniform before it was either in what I think of as Themysciran clothing or casual wear. Combined with the glasses and the altered hairstyle I could _just about_ understand her passing un-. Well, not unremarked upon, she's still a strikingly attractive woman. Not noticed as being Wonder Woman, perhaps. Just about.

I still don't understand how glasses work so well.

Something else I learned today: Diana owns a car. And can drive it herself. No diplomatic number plates either. I don't.. _think_ she has a cover identity. Is she planning on turning up around town as.. Diana Kent? That would be weird.

Kon's looking at the car as well. "Not that I'm complaining, but we've been walking to school just fine since September."

"I know. But your principal has been requesting a meeting with your parents." She smiles fondly at him and he reciprocates. "And since that is now **me** I though it might be best to show my face around the school gates once in a while."

Kon nods, then freezes up. "Ah, I don't _think_ I've done anything wrong?"

"I know you haven't. Your teachers have been extremely impressed by the level of knowledge you've displayed in your lessons."

He shrugs. "The G-Gnomes did all the hard work. I just have to remember it."

"Maybe we should offer the school their services. Do wonders for their league table position."

"Regardless of how you came by the knowledge, the fact remains that you're considerably better informed and more academically able than most students in your grade. The school may want to offer you a chance to study at a more advanced level."

"Oh. Ah. Great. I guess."

She smiles at him fondly. "And I'd like to be able to spend more time with you in public."

"You can do that _now_."

"Kon-. Conner, we talked about this. Deciding **not** to have a secret identity isn't something you can take back. If you're still set on abandoning it by the time you finish High School then I will accept your decision, but until then I expect you to maintain it." He nods, clearly not _entirely_ happy with the situation.

Not sure what I think on the subject. Themyscira probably has some sort of civil list type arrangement. It's not like Diana pays for the embassy by selling her own action figures or anything stupid like that. Could the Genomorphs use him as a PR rep? He'd need to increase his visibility for that to be the case. He hasn't mentioned to me finding one part of his education more interesting than the rest so I can't really try suggesting careers. Superheroing's his life so the hours would need to be very flexible… It's the same problem I have with Donna: converting super strength into cash just isn't that easy.

"Recognised, A one nine, Marie Logan."

A flash of light from the phone booth and a slightly dazed Missus Logan gets out. M'gann immediately lights up and scurries over to her. "Hi Marie!"

"Good-." She pauses, taking in her environment. "-morning Megan. I still don't think I've quite gotten used to-"

"Recognised, A two zero, Garfield Logan." He materialises, takes a couple of quick steps forwards then nearly trips up on the uneven ground but manages to catch himself.

M'gann walks over to him and kneels down. "Hey, Garfield. Ready for your first day of school?"

"Yeah? I think so." He looks even less certain than he sounds. He distracts himself by studying the one member of the group he doesn't immediately recognise. His eyes narrow as he regards Diana, and then they suddenly widen. "You're Wonder Woman!"

She inclines her head slightly. "I-"

"Now remember, Garfield." Missus Logan bends down to lecture her son. "You're not allowed to talk about Megan or Conner being superheroes with anyone they haven't already told. Or that you come to school by zeta tube."

"Yeah, I know." He bends around his mother to look at Diana. "But you **are**, right?"

"Sometimes. But today, you can just call me 'Diana'."

"Okay." I suppose he's probably a bit young to appreciate that level of familiarity from her. "Is Missus Reilly here?"

Diana looks at me. I shrug. "Um, she's in New York at the moment."

"Oh, okay." He looks around the group again. "Is it time to go yet?"

Diana consults her watch. "I suppose it is. I'll be driving you-"

"I call shotgun!" He dashes towards her car and then stops suddenly as he gets a better look at it. "Awwww… I though you'd have a secret agent car or something!"

"I prefer my vehicles to be road legal. But you're welcome to sit in the front if you like."

Missus Logan walks up behind Garfield and pulls him into a hug. "Remember to do what your teachers tell you. And try and get along with the other kids."

"_Moooom_."

She kisses him on the forehead before letting him go. Diana walks over to the car and opens the passenger side door for him. He hesitates for a moment and then jumps in.

Kon and M'gann head for the near side rear door as Diana walks around to the driver side. Kon gets in first while M'gann stops next to the door. "Why were you expecting Miss Reilly to be here?"

"Oh. I was worried Mom might get lonely with me being here and Miss Reilly said she'd make sure she didn't. She's been at the sanctuary a lot lately. Mom says they're best friends." He pauses for a moment. "Well, she said they were 'special friends', but that means the same thing, right?"

Huh?

M'gann gets in as Diana turns the key in the ignition and the car pulls away.

Huh?

Missus Logan stands next to me, sagging slightly and with her right hand over her face. "Tell me you didn't hear that."

"I… Didn't hear that? But.. that.. thing I didn't hear..?"

"She.. started.. visiting on a regular basis after you stopped by back in December."

"I… I'm sorry, I'm just a little surprised. Given the trouble she was having with social interaction… I mean…" I shake my head in incomprehension. "_**How**_?"

"How old are you again?"

"Eighteen. Oh, I don't-. I'm sorry, I don't mean to-."

"No, no, she.. said you'd helped her a lot. When she came back the first time… She.. noticed that I'd been.. _looking_ at her. She was actually.. quite… Assertive."

"Assertive in a **social** situation?"

"She.. walked up to me. Naked."

"That that that _is_ pretty assertive. Um. You do know that she-?"

"That she's a robot? That was sort of obvious when she stopped faking her facial expressions. I…" She exhales. "I've been.. cut off from the rest of the world at the sanctuary, since Mark died. It probably wasn't healthy but.. it.. got me through." She pauses, trying to get her thoughts in order. "It's been.. nice, having another adult around. She's good with the animals, great with Garfield…"

"And you don't need to worry about Bialyan patrols with her there. Well, I'm.. happy for the two of you." I nod, more to myself than to her. "Flabbergasted, but happy."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

**I͘͜͡ ̸̶́͏d̸͝͏͘o̴͞ǹ̛͝'̀͝t̸͢ ̕̕ķn҉͜o̶̧̨w̷̴̴̢ ̸͠͡͡͡ẃ̸̢́͡ḩ̢e̵̷̡͝r̢͘͘҉e̷̴͠ ̕͠I̶͜͡ ͠͝҉͡͝a̴͏҉͟m̴̶̢̧̢**  
**̵w͏̢ḩ̷҉e͟͢͞͞r̡͟e͢҉҉͝ ͘͡I̡͠'̷̡̛͝m͠͏ ̵̶̷̡̕g̢͠o̷҉̷̨͞i҉̢̀͘̕n̵҉g̶̸̷̛**  
**҉͠o̷r̷̛͘͡ ̸͜͡͠ẁ̸̧̧͏h̡̡͞a͢͞҉t̴͞͝ ̷̨̀͠I̵͘͘̕͠'͢͝m͟҉ ̡d̴̸o̴̴̧͢͝ì͘͟n̛͘ǵ̸̸͞͠**

I continue walking down the deserted streets. Around me are signs of recent destruction but whatever caused it has long passed by. All but the most enthusiastic fires have died for lack of fuel and smashed walls have already collapsed and stilled. I step over the body of a man who looks like he tried to cut off his own skin with a pen knife and try taking a moment to assess the situation. In the distance I can hear muffled cries and moans, each one fading to nothing as I try and judge its direction or location. Having no where better to go and no real sense of place I press on; in such a nightmarish world surely one place is as good as another?

Destruction. I should have prevented this. It was my.. job, wasn't it? My.. my **friends**… My friends. Why can't I remember..?

"Aaarrrrwwwwwwooooohhhh!"

I feel… Dread. I'm a.. god, but that sound makes me feel so _small_. I keep going, keep walking, even though… Even though I **know** what's around the next corner. I step out of the side street onto what's left of Brompton Road, a vision of hell from some medieval painting. Wrecked vehicles, dead and dying men, women and children. The injuries vary but a quick glance shows many to be self inflicted. That, or caused by those immediately next to them as they in turn struck their attackers down. I slow from my habitual stroll. I.. don't want to keep going but somehow I can't **not**. My breath comes in short rasps, my heart _races_ in a way it hasn't since… I can't remember.

"Rrraaaarrwwwhhhh!"

The very shape to the road draws my eyes onwards… And worse, upwards. At first my mind fails to comprehend what my eyes are seeing, a large.. vertical.. _thing_… It moves in my general direction but in the darkness I can't.. clearly.. make it out. Has a building collapsed further? No, that wouldn't-. It's a paw, and as it lands, as the ground shakes and I'm thrown to the ground my eyes move up further still, finally perceiving the monster that has doomed the world.

"Rrraahhhh!"

The great orange eyes, more holes in the blackness than eyes. The fur made of shadows, the great grey teeth, the snarling mouth riven by the insane rage and hate that drives it. Tiny as I am, it sees me now, a lone living thing amongst the desolation. I freeze, mouth dry and mind empty as its vast head plummets towards me and I thrust out my right hand, sheets ripping as I try to sit up in bed and just sort of flop back. It's it's oh thank goodness.

My heart's still racing and I'm still breathing like I'd run… Like my pre-ascension self had tried running a marathon and collapsed through exhaustion. I run my right hand across my brow. Actual sweat! My goodness.

_"Ploong."_

I look across to where Father Box and the ring rest on the bedside table to my right. My left arm is reaching out across the mattress towards… I'm reaching out to Jade. For **comfort**. I know full well she isn't here but in my panic I just instinctively…

This is ridiculous. This isn't the first time I've dreamt of the Shadow Dog but that was far more intense.. more **real** than any of my previous nightmares. The first time it happened I thought that perhaps I was seeing Apokolips or.. some Earth like interpretation of it but _that_, **that** was London. I pull my left arm in and push myself into a sitting position. Prophetic visions? Could it be a normal nightmare? A natural product of all of the changes and stresses I've been through? Or is someone just messing with me.

**That**, I can do something about.

"Ring."

It obediently flies out in front of me. I hold out my left hand and it drops onto my left ring finger.

**7th January**  
**02:16 GMT -4**

Seriously? Two o'clock..? Ugh. I push the torn sheets aside and lift up off the bed before landing on the floor. My mouth's still dry and I doubt that I could get back to sleep again. I head to the door of my room and then out along the empty corridor, leaving Father Box behind. Kitchen. I'll head to the kitchen. Give myself time to calm down and plan out my strategy. And get a drink. I still feel a little unsteady, which is strange in and of itself. The ring or my own divinity should have sorted that out by now. This.. suggests that high end magic is in play. I wouldn't have thought that Morpheus himself would have any reason to target me. Too subtle for Klarion. Maybe if it had been a cat… But… Dog made of shadows. That reminds me of something. Can't quite…

I hear pouring water from the kitchen just up ahead. When we moved into the mountain I intentionally chose a room that would be close to the 'action areas' both so that I wouldn't have far to travel and so that I would be the first thing a potential home invader would run into. But an invader wouldn't run a tap. Can't hear a voice… I take a moment to consider my state of undress. I've taken to sleeping in loose fitting silk trousers. Is anyone likely to be offended? Wouldn't think so. I push open the door and walk through.

Tao looks up, then returns the kettle to its stand and turns it on. He's wearing blue -and I hesitate to think of it like this, but damn it they _are_\- kung fu pyjamas. "Grayven. What brings you here at this time of the night?"

I trudge over to the kitchen table, pull my specially reinforced chair out and sit down. I don't really **need** the reinforcements anymore but they do rather serve to mark out **my** chair. "Nightmare. You? Time zones still messing you about?"

He shakes his head. "No. A nightmare with me also. I though that perhaps some tea would assist me in returning to sleep." He considers his cup for a moment and then looks at me enquiringly. "Would you like to try some? It is a most soothing blend."

"No, thank you." I send a filament to the cupboard and the fridge. "Hot milk for me." The fridge door opens and one of my bottles of fresh milk floats out to land on the table before me. I set one of my oversized tankards down beside it as I unscrew the lid and pour the liquid into my drinking vessel.

"If.. I am not overstepping my bounds..?"

"What was it?" He nods. "No, that's… That's fine. I was walking through a ruined city, death and destruction everywhere. To begin with I didn't recognise it as London, not until I-"

"Came out onto a major thoroughfare." Tao meets my eyes for a moment, then looks away, nodding. "It was Beijing for me. And when I came out onto the road-"

Oh, this is not good. "A huge Dog-"

"-made out of shadow."

"This is **bad**, right? I don't have much experience with-"

"Forgive me if I am intruding." Tao and I both blink and look around as Kaldur walks in through the hangar entrance. "I.. heard voices. And I believe that I could benefit from the company." For nightwear Kaldur appears to prefer a green, blue and red speckled cotton shirt with navy blue cotton trousers. And -for reasons which I can only guess at- a scarf. I though he didn't feel the cold?

The kettle bubbles and pings, prompting Tao to pour the near boiling water into his teapot. "Your company is always welcome, Kaldur. But.. may I enquire? Do you flee as we do from nightmares of a great Dog made of shadows?"

Kaldur's eyes widen slightly, then he nods. "It had destroyed Poseidonis. Everywhere was in ruins. I was the only one alive."

I grimace. "The same dream with _some_ localisation. Ring, show me our team mates in sequence."

An orange image of Kon's face appears over the table. He's sleeping peacefully. The image shudders for a moment and is replaced by one of Mat-. Of _**Mitchell**_. Must get him used to being called that. M'gann's also fine. Richard's sleeping like an unusually smug log.

Kaldur frowns slightly. "If the effect were targeting the mountain…"

Wallace is pacing his room. Artemis' eyes are wide open as she presses her head against her pillow. Raquel's comatose. Zatanna is sitting on the side of her bed, shaking slightly. William is asleep peacefully. I dismiss the last image. "And all the ones affected…"

Kaldur nods. "Are people you have Awakened." He glances at Tao. "Or were Awakened by another."

I nod. "We have a problem." And then I squint and shake my head in frustration. "And what the hell is with that scarf, man?"

**7th January**  
**02:18 GMT -4**

He raises his right hand slightly towards it, then stops it half way. I roll my eyes and take a drink from my mug. Self conscious about his choice of night apparel? It is a fairly hideous scarf. I think I've seen him wear it a couple of times when he's come in from a walk outside and needed something to cover.. his…

"Something wrong with your gills?" He looks slightly down. "I can have a look if you want but if the problem is arcane in nature you would be better off consulting an Atlantian doctor."

"My gills are.. not.. precisely the source of the problem." Both of his hands go up and delicately start unwinding the scarf. I frown in curiosity. I wonder what exact-. _Oh_. "You had told me that those who undergo the Awakening may undergo certain.. **physical** changes-" I stand up and walk towards him, staring at his neck. "-but I did not realise that this was what you meant."

Oh my goodness me. "I didn't either. May I-" I gesture with my right hand. "-touch it?" A shallow nod and I run the three middle fingers of my right hand along the smooth skin of the left side of his neck. "How long..?"

"They had felt strange for a few days, but there was no physical change until I awoke this morning. Can I assume that this is not something you intended?"

"Not specifically." I take a half-pace back, left fist tapping against my lips. **Jolly** odd. I was expecting the Awakening to exacerbate deviations from the Human physical norm, not eliminate them. Though.. I suppose… "Have you tried breathing water?"

He shakes his head. "Not since I woke up."

"Does it hurt?" I turn to look at Tao, who now has a cup of tea in his hands. "It seemed like a pertinent question."

"It does not hurt. In truth-" The fingers of his left hand follow the path mine took moments before. "-it does not feel like anything. The discomfort at having gills in a dry environment to which I have.. **had** become accustomed is gone."

Ring, scan.

By your command.

Without Father Box by my side what the ring shows me is too limited to draw any firm conclusions. The grafts.. appear to be expanding, but that… The dream. A surge of magic might accelerate the progression. That makes sense. "This is fascinating, but I think that the Shadow Dog invading our dreams should probably take priority." Kaldur nods. "Assuming that you don't feel unwell?"

He flexes his right arm, making a fist and then relaxing it again. "I do not feel unwell at all. If anything… I would say that I feel…" He raises his right hand out in front of him and gestures upwards, his tattoos glowing faintly. Tao raises his eyebrows as his tea leaves the cup and floats upwards. Kaldur makes a fist and it freezes solid in the air. Ring, detail view. Kaldur turns his hand palm upwards and opens it. Tao's frozen tea vibrates and then vaporises in response, the barely detectable cloud of gas forming a haze in the air. From what I can see of Kaldur's metaphysique it looks like he's shifted to something more like a pureblood, the slightly angular shapes of the cruder version of the graft-spell used to allow him to live under water changing into the more rounded shapes of the version Ahri'ahn created.

Fascinating.

But not pertinent. "Since you don't appear to have been disempowered, I'm going to suggest that we insomniacs arm ourselves and locate the source of our shared nightmare."

Kaldur lowers his arm and the tea returns to Tao's cup. He takes a sip while Kaldur stares at his own gently glowing arm. "I am not so powerful."

"Demonstrably, you are."

"This level of control and power is the province of senior battlemages."

"Or gods." He freezes for a second, then looks at me. "You're not bound by normal rules anymore. And I'll wager that you've retained the ability to breathe underwater as well."

He nods. "It would not be fair to wake those of our team mates who have school tomorrow."

"I agree. Why don't you and Tao get yourselves equipped while I do a phone-around. Zatanna is probably our best chance of detecting the source."

Tao looks slightly uncomfortable as he looks from me to Kaldur. "You wish for us to deploy without order from the Batman?"

Kaldur nods. "This is a response to an attack. We _can_ act ourselves. Still, it may be best for us to keep them in the loop."

Ring? Ah. "It appears that Green Arrow has had a similarly disturbed night. I'll include him and-"

"**Aaaahhroooawww**." Mister Tawny stomps in from the hangar entrance, tail swishing and looking about ready to disembowel something.

I raise my eyebrows. "You as well?"

He walks to the entrance to the living area, turns and paces back. "**Rrrr**_**hhw**_**ww**."

Tao edges away from the angry Tiger and puts his cup down on the sideboard. "I will prepare myself for our mission. Excuse me." He gives Kaldur a shallow bow and then skirts Mister Tawny to head in the direction of his quarters.

I kneel and Mister Tawny approaches me, rubbing his head against mine and making a throaty rumbling sound. I scratch his head with both hands and nuzzle back hard. "Bad dream, Mister Tawny? We all had it. We're going to find out where it came from and we're going to stop it." He pulls his head back slightly, just watching me.

"I will gather my equipment…" Something occurs to Kaldur. "Though I am not sure that I will still have need of my Water Bearers."

I nod, give Mister Tawny one last rub with my right hand and then stand, raising the ring to my left hand as Kaldur heads out of the room. "Ring, call Green Arrow."

"By your command."

I moment later I hear a ring tone. Ring, show me-.

"Uhh. Someone better be dying." The ring shows me a barely awake Ms Lance reaching over to take hold of the handset at her bedside. "Who is it? J'onn?" She shifts position slightly and realises that there's no one in bed next to her. "Ollie?"

Whoops. "I am most terribly sorry, sir. I was trying-"

She face screws up further. "Grayven?"

"I apologise for aw-. For waking you up. We just suffered a psychic attack targeting the Awakened. I was trying to reach-"

"**Oliver**! _Phone_!" The ring shows her thrust it out in the direction of their bedroom's door as a sheepish looking Mister Queen returns, snatches it out of her hand and then beats a rapid retreat as Ms Lance buries herself once more beneath the covers.

"You just _had_ to tick her off."

"Sorry sir."

"What's this about?"

"Everyone I know of who went through the Awakening just had the same-"

"Nightmare." His face grows sombre. "The world in ruins and a gigantic black dog coming after us."

"Just so. I was about to ask Zatanna to try and locate the source, and since you're the only Justice Leaguer to have undergone the process I'd appreciate it if you'd sign off on that."

"I'm not in charge of your team." He looks pretty rough, actually. "Is Kaldur okay with this?"

"Yes."

"Have you called Batman?"

"No."

"Alright, look." He sits down heavily at his kitchen table and rubs his face with his right hand. "You can get Zatara and Zatanna to look into it, but you're gonna need to get Batman to sign off on attacking anything."

I smile. Guess who I'm **not** sworn to obey. "Of course, sir."

**7th January**  
**02:28 GMT -4**

Zatanna touches her right hand to Kaldur's head, four glowing triquetra floating around them on the inside of the protective circle on the floor. Tao is sitting cross-legged on the floor near the far wall, his eyes closed. Mister Tawny has taken to pacing around Zatanna's work area. Haven't had a chance for a decent two way conversation with him yet but he's still seriously wound up. It doesn't surprise me that Shadowcrest has dedicated, custom built ritual spaces for things like this. What _does_ surprise me is that it wasn't better locked.

"So there really _is_ a giant Shadow Dog of the Apocalypse?"

I return my attention to the image of Wallace just in front of me. "Perhaps. _Something_ is certainly using high powered magics against us, and I see little profit in giving us insomnia."

He squeezes his eyes shut for a moment. "Ugh. If you.. need me, I can get ready in a few minutes."

"No, no. You have school later today."

"Oh, don't remind me."

"Zatanna can't detect any ongoing effect. If what we experienced was just the result some sort of arcane build up discharging, there shouldn't be anything to prevent you having a restful night."

"How did you even know I was awake?"

"Long range scan." He jerks, blinks, and then starts looking around his room. "Stop. Up a little. Bit more. Leeeft… There."

He looks directly at my point of view. "Dude."

"I don't _routinely_ use it to watch my team mates sleep. Seriously, we-" I lean back as a book floats past me towards Zatanna. "-got this."

He nods. "Okay. Let me know how it went tomorr-. Tonight."

I nod and end the call. That makes everyone. Artemis was ardently in favour of coming with us but she was _eventually_susceptible to reason. Meanwhile I've been trying to rack my brains for anything I know about what this could be. Father Box hasn't got anything but from the way he's been _ploong_ing he appears to find the whole situation fascinating.

Zatanna makes a circling motion with her left hand and the book's pages obediently turn. "Assuming that it actually **is** some sort of Dog creature… And it probably is; none of us are afraid of Dogs and the shape is too specific not to be intentional." The pages stop turning. "Ah, here we go. Kau I'pa, the Shadow Dog."

Kaldur looks at the book curiously. "Is that a bestiary of arcane creatures?"

"No. A Christian priest who worked in Tasmania wrote down a lot of the local people's myths and legends."

I smile. "Before the British ruthlessly exterminated them."

"No. I mean, _yes_, the British killed most of them, this was actually written from the accounts of survivors afterwards."

Kaldur nods. "What does it say?"

"Not much. There's a name, a description and a few vague notes…" She yawns, and the book sags in the air as she covers her mouth with her left hand. "It's supposed to be involved with some sort of disaster, but there isn't much actual information-" The door opens in a sudden jerk and Mister Zatara walks through, wearing a dressing gown and with a slim black book under his left arm. "Dad?"

He looks us over. "You cannot sneak into Shadowcrest without alerting its owner." He takes the book out from under his arm with his right hand and holds it up. "'When the doors slam open and the Great Dog comes running through our dreams, souls will be emptied like wine skins.' And you all shared the dream."

I nod. "You didn't?"

"No. But I had felt something.. strange, in the magic currents of the world." He gives Zatanna's ritual arrangement a quick look over. "You are attempting to track it back to the source?"

"Um. Yes?"

He nods. "You should not have begun such a work without me." She shrinks slightly. "But.. now that I am here… Continue."

"I've.. taken psychometry resonance readings from Tao, Grayven, Mister Tawny and Kaldur." She removes her right hand from Kaldur's forehead and a fifth triquetra flickers into life, joining the other four. "Kaldur, could you step out of the circle, please?" He takes a step backwards. "Thank you. With these as a guide, a simple remote viewing spell should be able to follow the effect back to its source." The spinning triquetra form up into a pentagon in front of her.

Mister Zatara nods. "What about the potential for backlash? If this creature is powerful enough to affect your sleep even **here**, it could easily lash out and harm you through the connection."

"My spell has surge protectors. If something like that happens it just breaks the spell. It might not work if it's something smart and paying close attention, but I.. don't.. think that's the case."

"Then proceed."

She nods, takes a deep breath and holds out her arms towards the square. "Selpicnirp fo ecnanoser dna noitcennoc, dleihs em morf siht rewop dna laever ot em sti ecruos!"

A faint film of golden light flickers into being, its outer edge delineated by lines between the centre of the triquetras. For a moment I see a man and a woman sitting in a train carriage. The man's having some sort of fit while the woman and the few other passengers are staring out of the train window as the shadows outside form into the shape of a giant Dog-. Zatanna steps back as the triquetra shatter.

Kaldur looks at her with concern but she waves him off. "Was your spell showing us something that is happening now?"

Wait a moment. Giant Shadow Dog.. going after a train? Why does that sound familiar?

_Ploong._

"Yes. In.. England. Somewhere near London."

Shadow Do-? Oooh shit. "We need to leave now." A boom tube portal leading to central London appears next to me even as I set the ring to search for every tra- _there_!

Mister Zatara nods. "I will accompany you. Should this require-"

"I'm sorry, but no. I can't trust you to keep a civil tongue in your head when dealing with John Constantine."

He freezes in shock for a moment and then his face contracts into a snarl. "Constant-!"

Filaments connect me to each of my team mates as I transition us through.

**7th January**  
**06:31 GMT**

I land on the tracks about two hundred metres on from the oncoming train, my team mates a little off to the side. Off to the right I see the outline of the Dog itself, far smaller and less tangible than in our dreams. I thrust my arms forwards, orange light rushing along the track and flowing over the train as I break the connection between it and the electrified rail. It's still barrelling towards us. Carefully, now. Don't exceed the pressure tolerances of the hull. Lift… The front end starts to lift. Been a while since I tried lifting anything under these circumstances and I'd be lying if I said-

"Niart esir ffo eht kcart dna emoc ot a etelpmoc pots!"

That helps. I feel the train's momentum just bleed away.

"Grayven, explain yourself!"

I'm smiling with relief as I look over to where Kaldur stands ready. **His** eyes are focused on the Dog. "The Dog isn't the threat. Look, we're in a major inhabited area here and it's focused on the train. If it just wanted to wreck the place… Why? Zatanna's spell showed us a man first. It didn't show us the Dog until it ran up to the window. If the magic came from the Dog-."

He nods in understanding. "It would have showed us the Dog before anything else."

"Exactly." I cut power to this section of track before depositing the train back down. Then two beams of orange flare from my eyes and strike a rune drawn in blood on the window of the carriage which the remote viewing spell showed us, disintegrating a large part of the side of the carriage. I try blasting Mister Spatchcock directly but the beams splash off with no effect. No, that would be too easy, wouldn't it? "What's say we find out what's really going on?"

**7th January**  
**06:33 GMT**

Ring, data.

By your command.

I lead the way along the side of the train. A glance into the distance show that the Dog isn't coming closer. I can see it… Well, no, I can't, but I **can** see where it blocks out the lights behind it. I can't really analyse it's body language. Did whatever runic protection whatever her name… Angela? Whatever Angela put up actually hurt it? Was it specifically designed to fight the.. **thing**, and has a glass jaw against anything else?

Zatanna hurries up to me and puts her right hand on my right arm. "Grayven-."

"The target is possessing the body of a man named Jason Spatchcock. He was diagnosed as schizophrenic as a youth but showed an unexplained cessation of symptoms after an.. 'incident' at the psychiatric hospital he had been living in."

"What sort of incident?"

"A town-wide riot in Stone Cross which saw the place invaded by strange men in wooden masks wearing robes and necklaces made of sewn together hands. The locals went mad and the invaders went about beating people to death with sticks."

I hear Tao put an arrow on string. "Was the Justice League involved?"

"No. By the time anyone from outside the area responded it was all over bar the screaming. Police haven't the slightest clue what happened and are hiding that fact behind a 'thorough investigation'."

I hear a 'swosh' noise as Kaldur activates his Water Bearers. "A cult of some kind? Perhaps a summoning that went wrong."

"That would be my guess."

"Though if Jason Spatchcock was indeed possessed, everyone else may simply have been a distraction."

Hmm. Might be, though I'd have thought that the cult would have picked him up if that were the case. "Jason was released earlier today, signed out by his sister Angela. His notes report him drawing pictures of a monstrous black Dog."

I look up at the train windows. More than a few fearful looking people peering out at us through the windows. How many of them have seen the Dog? And how many of them know us by sight? Some might recognise Zatanna's face but I imagine that _my_ uniform is the one most recognisable. The ring notifies me as the emergency door release is pulled in three places on the far side of the train and people start fleeing. Not a bad plan, really. Phones are being rung -no harm there- and pictures are being taken of us. Bright inside, dark out here… My armour **will** be recognised. "Zatanna, I'm going to need y-." What am I doing? "Aqualad, I recommend that Zatanna check Mister Spatchcock over on the off chance that there's anything of the man left."

"Agreed. What do you know of the abilities of the thing that has him in its thrall?"

"Aside from the fact that it's epically powerful? I would guess that it has some sort of connection to the collective Human soul-."

"A parapsychic event!"

I glance at Zatanna and nod. Nice that she's keeping up. "Almost certainly."

"I.. am sorry. I do not know that word."

Zatanna glances back at Tao. "Most people don't. Tcetorp em morf ym seof." Her armour glows brighter. "Parapsychics are people with strong natural psychometric abilities. Their brains constantly interpret the mystical auras around them as sources of information."

I nod. "In virtually all cases they find it overwhelming. They usually end up in psychiatric institutions. That or hermitages."

"Whatever changes are happening to our souls, it looks like we were all sensitive enough to pick this up. It wasn't a spell or an attempt at dream manipulation, just the effect of this.. _thing_ just **being** here."

We spread out slightly as we come up to the blasted away section of the train. Tao stands back, his bow raised at the target area. What do I remember about this thing? Zatanna drops back slightly as Kaldur comes up alongside me. The thing was essentially nameless, wasn't it? No definition for magic to tie itself to. Was the Shadow Dog supposed to have been created by the Christian god, or am I misremembering that? It feels strange to think about it as being a comic… I remember it creating suicides and madness in small quantities before finally cracking the collective subconscious. Don't remember it doing much else.

Shit, we're totally not ready for this.

I stand just next to the blasted section and hold up the three middle fingers of my right hand. Then two. Then I step around the rim and-. A terrified looking Angela shoves a mobile phone in my face. Kaldur works his way around to my right. Behind Angela I see Jason lying out in the isle. He _looks_ insensible.

"It's… It's for you."

Her right hand shakes as I reach out with my own and gently take the mobile from her and hold it against my right ear. "Do I have the pleasure of addressing Mister John Constantine?"

"Famous, am I?"

"You might say that." Angela shrinks back as Kaldur jumps on board the train. "What do you want?"

"Who am I talking to, exactly?"

"My name is Grayven."

"Really."

"Why don't you ask that.. Map fellow to set up some sort of remote viewing system?" Ring, track and trace.

Unable to comply.

"If you know who we are, why are you getting involved?"

"You have a reputation, Mister Constantine. Plus, you were going after the wrong target."

"Big fan of giant, world ending Dogs are you?"

Kaldur holds a runic stone over the recumbent Mister Spatchcock. It glows brilliantly for about half a second and then explodes. "Mister Constantine, what is the defining feature of the thing you are trying to fight?"

"Not really in the mood for twenty questions, mate."

"It doesn't have a name. Adam supposedly tried to give it one-"

"And it screamed like it was burned, yeah. I got that from the Binei Gadol."

"What is the defining feature of a Dog, Mister Constantine? Or to put it another way, how are you able to recognise a inherently nameless and undefined being as **being** a Dog?" I hear an sharp intake of breath. "You've been led around by the-."

"That bitch in Tasmania-"

"British man asking a question of a ghost whose people the British slaughtered? I could **guess** what motivated her."

"_Fff_**uck**."

"Fuck indeed, Mister Constantine. Fuck indeed."

"Angie said the Dog was going after her brother."

"Schizophrenia doesn't just disappear. He's not in the driving seat any longer. And that's being optimistic."

"You got a magician with you?"

"Yes."

"Powerful?"

"Yes."

"'Cause everything I had set up was for the Dog, so I'm at a bit of a loss here."

"The entity has two known weakness. This will not be pretty."

Silence for a moment. "Pass me back to Angie."

I hand her the phone before reaching out to Zatanna with my right hand. "Zatanna, one nameless thingamy hiding inside Mister Spatchcock-"

Angela's eyes widen and she presses the phone to her ear. "John, what's he talking about?"

"-needs to be given a name. A **defining** name, you understand? As Adam once named every thing in creation." She nods and I help her up into the carriage.

"No. No." Angela collapses and starts to tear up. Kaldur reaches out in an attempt to comfort her but she knocks his hand away.

Zatanna stands next to Mister Spatchcock's head and kneels down, laying her hands on his head. "Yb eht Elpicnirp fo Lasrevinu Wal-" A triquetra forms on his forehead and his eyes snap open. "dna yb eht…" She hesitates for a moment and then presses on, golden white light blazing from her eyes. "Yb eht ytirohtua detnarg ot Mada yb eht Ecneserp-" Mister Spatchcock is shaking uncontrollably now, a disturbing crackling noise coming from his throat. "-I eman uoy 'Yenrab eht Ruasonid'! Tel eht Wodahs God ekat uoy!"

Red mist streams from his body out into the night towards the Shadow Dog. The Dog opens its mouth wide and seems to breath it in. Once all of it is gone the Dog's shadow body thins and fades into nothing. Quick check and yes, Mister Spatchcock is truly dead. Unfortunate, I suppose, but hardly our doing.

"Jason! Jason!" Angela throws the phone down and fruitlessly tries to shake some life into her brother.

Zatanna starts to fall back and is caught by Kaldur. Mission achieved and apocalypse averted then.

Hate to think what would have happened if we hadn't been here.

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

**8th January  
13:49 GMT +3**

I can't-! I can't keep this up! My eyes burn as I force them to remain open, transfixed by the gaze of my inhuman opponent. It feels like I've been like this for _**hours**_! Why did **I** get singled out, I… No no **no**!

I blink.

"I win again!" Cassandra beams at me before flying back across the Invisible Plane's passenger compartment to her mother. "Mom! I beat the Lantern again!"

Doctor Sandsmark looks at me with the grateful gaze of a parent witnessing their beloved offspring taking their excessive energy out on someone _else_ for once. "That's very impressive, Cassie."

I pick up the rings from the table in front of me and slip them back on my fingers manually. "How about a card game next?"

She floats back across the cabin. "Card games are boring. I don't know why you like them so much."

"Rummy and Seven Card Whist-" She tries to meet my eyes again and I make a point of looking away. "-are how my grandparents used to keep **me** entertained during family holidays." She drops to the floor, still trying to make me look into her eyes. I meet her gaze for a second, then close my eyes and smile. "Orange Lantern Corps regulations require that I spend some time each day in meditation. Would you like to join me?"

"What's meditation?"

"A process by which one clears one's mind and rearranges one's thoughts-"

"**Boring**!"

A six thirty start and I transitioned the plane most of the way. Couldn't do it all of the way as the wards protecting Themyscira need a bit of time to accept a fast moving aircraft. Donna and Kon are in the cockpit with Diana while I try keeping the Wonder Tot entertained. Did I have an attention span this short at her age, or is she simply excited about going somewhere new?

"I could make rings for you to fly through if you like?"

"Did you do that?"

"Did I do what?"

She huffs like I've said something stupid. "Fly through rings? Is that part of your superhero training?"

"Not as a Lantern, but when I was learning how to use my flight belt Lantern Gardner cr-"

"Which one's he?"

"The ginger one. He created-"

The door separating the cockpit from the rest of the plane opens and I feel the air move as Cassandra flies to talk to someone more interesting. "Donna? Are we nearly there yet?"

Donna makes an amused humming noise. "Not quite, but it won't be much longer. Diana wanted me to see if you want to watch from the front of the plane."

"Yeah!"

"Cas**sie**."

"I mean, yes please!"

I hear Donna giggle and a moment later the door to the cockpit closes. Aaand _relax_. Not sure if I actually need to meditate any longer but I do want to try to set a good example for future recruits. The chances of them being immediately able to perceive that I don't need to is probably quite low. I wonder how having an existing group of warriors will affect how the Controllers relate to me? Are they going to want to transfer-

"Is this your first time on Themyscira?" I open my eyes and Doctor Sandsmark smiles at me. "It's okay, the coast is clear."

"Oh, no, I didn't mind-."

"I know she can be a bit much sometimes. She's got so much energy. I used to think it was just youthful exuberance. Then she.. started flying."

"How's the support group been?"

She exhales. "Helpful. Sort of. There aren't all that many of us. Cassie likes having friends who can 'do weird things too'-" I nod. "-but seeing some of the other kids really brings home how lucky we've been. Cassie doesn't have any of the health problems some of them do, she can pass as normal if she wants to and she instinctively knows how to control her powers. Not that that doesn't create its own problems."

"Does she ever get tired?"

"Won-. Diana let her try weightlifting once. You've seen the weights-" I nod. "-she uses?" Diana doesn't exactly **need** to work out, but she has several sets of halteres and lifting stones enchanted for extra weight. Presumably they're either for training other people or maintaining mental discipline. "She got pretty tired out doing that. She still gets.. mentally tired, but sometimes she tries to get away with not sleeping at all because she doesn't feel like she's physically tired. Do, um, do you know if Superboy has the same problem?"

"He's never mentioned it. And.. I'm.. pretty much the team medic, so I'm going to assume not. On the other hand, his upbringing wasn't exactly…"

"Is he..? Really… Superman's son?"

"Genetically, yes. Kon is the result of an attempt to clone Superman. Superman didn't actually.. sire him, if you like. They don't really have any sort of social relationship." Kal-El appears not to have followed up on his desire to involve himself more in Kon's life. Maybe I was a bit harsh? I mean, everything I said was _true_…

"So, have you been here before?"

"Only very briefly, back when I first arrived on this planet."

She blinks in surprise. "I.. hadn't realised that you were an alien."

Huh? "Oh, no no no, I'm not. I'm from a parallel universe. Earth, but not quite like this one. Anyway, I just saw some moor land, a forest and the Temple of Gaea."

"You saw one of their temples? Do they use the classical stone column design or is it more like a stone building similar to the Erechtheum temple?"

"Gaea's Temple is more of a sacred grove cum pocket universe. There wasn't anything.. built there. I didn't actually get to see-" I feel the plane start to lose altitude as we come in to land. We'll be landing in the city proper this time. "-any of their architecture."

"I wonder if the ancient Greeks worshipped like that? That's the problem with archaeology; if there isn't a stone monument or something in writing we're often left just making educated guesses." She thinks for a moment. "I'm hoping I can speak to one of their historians. No one from the outside world has seen their records since the fifties."

"I suppose this must be quite an opportunity. As far as I know, their lifestyle hasn't.. changed all that much since the exile. Apart from not ageing and there being no men."

"Are they going to be alright with you and Kon?"

"Don't know really." I hear as we switch to vertical thrust as we come into land. "Just have to play it by ear."

**8th January  
13:54 GMT +3**

"Can I go out first? P-leeeease?!" Cassandra isn't quite sure where she should be directing the request, so decided instead to direct it out to the whole of the room. In the cockpit I can just hear the flicking of switches as Diana finishes shutting the plane down.

Doctor Sandsmark puts her right hand on her daughter's left shoulder. "I think we should probably let Diana go out first. This is her home after all."

Cassandra looks around in appeal. Donna shakes her head while Kon and I just smile at her. Wolf doesn't understand what's happening but wags her tail anyway. "Ao_wahh_…"

Kon's wearing his normal casual clothing of 'S' t-shirt and jeans, though he's added a flight belt. Donna's wearing her armour. I had wondered if she was going to wear a chiton but she told me that the clothing was the one part of Themysciran society she wasn't that keen on. I saw her pack one for the formal dinner scheduled for this evening and I'm.. going to have to try to find time to design something for myself. I could either go with a robe of some kind in my signature grey and orange or design some sort of Orange Corps formal uniform. I've got the design of the Green Corps' formal uniform from Stewart's ring, though it's a bit.. vague. A Lantern Corps' uniform can't be particularly uniform due to the vast variety of cultures its members come from and the equally vast variety of morphologies they can possess. For the sake of consistency they can't even say 'humanoids do this, everyone else can do whatever'. At the moment I'm in my old bike leathers, though I might switch to a suit for our actual formal introduction to Queen Hippolyta.

"Everyone ready?" Diana leaves the cockpit and looks us all over. Diana **is** in her formal robes, though I happen to know that she has her armour on underneath it. Cassandra looks like she wants to renew her demand but her mother catches her eye and shakes her head before she can open her mouth. Nods all round, though inside Kon I see a minor resurgence of his old rejection related disquiet. Unlike in the period leading up to his adoption it no longer finds purchase to translate into conscious thought or action, but it's still living there. "Good." She frowns slightly as she sees what I'm carrying. "You intend to bring your lantern?"

I pat the carry case. "I feel bad about leaving the Ophidian in the cave all the time. She'll behave herself."

Diana nods. "Very well. You'll help Helena down?" I nod, and she presses the button to release the hatch. Almost immediately I hear the sound of the sea and the song of the local birds. From my position at the back of the group I can't really see what sort of welcome awaits us. I can see a.. partial view of the stone paved ground which the plane is resting on. I decided before we arrived that scanning around to assuage my curiosity would not be the right thing to do on an island that was probably accepting the masculine half of the species for the first time in over two thousand years only grudgingly. I'll rely on my eyes.

Diana's appearance at the open door is greeted by the thump of wooden shafts -the butts of spears, presumably- on the stone ground. "Hail Diana, Princess of Themyscira!"

"Hail, Mala." Diana drifts out through the door and heads towards the ground. "It is good to be-"

"Now Mom? Can I?!" Doctor Sandsmark sighs and then waves her daughter forwards. Cassandra heads out of the door at top speed.

"Is that..?"

Wolf ducks between Kon and Donna's legs and sticks her head out of the door. "Rraaw! Raaw!"

She starts leaning forward as if preparing to jump down. Before she can decide to make the leap Kon reaches down and picks her up. "How about I carry you down instead?" She squirms around in his arms and gives his face a lick. He heads out next, closely follow by Donna. They follow Diana in landing on the ground just outside the plane while Cassandra flies past doing a quick airborne tour of the plaza.

I bow to Doctor Sandsmark and hold out my left arm in the direction of the doorway, orange construct steps materialising from the lip of the doorway and descending to the ground. She smiles at me- "Thank you." -then walks out onto the first step. "I'm actually on Themyscira." She takes a deep breath. "Here I go." She heads down the steps, pausing briefly halfway down to take a good look around.

Just the Ophidian and I to go then. Environmental shield to minimum I float forwards out of the plane, closing the door behind me with a wave of my right hand. The leader of the group of guards greeting Diana -or at least the one furthest forwards, their armours all look identical to me- is blonde. Mala, I assume. The armour she and the three other guards with her wear consists of a solid steel breastplate -nearly flat rather than that ridiculous 'accentuated' stuff comic artists like to show women wearing- with pauldrons, greaves and a sort of studded leather skirt thing. Their helmets have red Mohawk plumes, their shields are round in the aspis style but metal rather than the traditional wood. None of them have a crest, though that fits the tradition of the period of the Exile. They carry xiphos type swords in scabbards attached to their left hips, though the blades are steel rather than the historical bronze or iron. I suppose Io and Pallas have had plenty of time to learn the techniques and arm their sisters.

I know that Mala used to run the prison Rose Canton was housed at, a job which involved her learning fluent English. Alan liked her. The others… No idea who they are. One has red hair and is very definitely sizing Kon up. And not in a friendly way. Odd though; I know that most Amazons have black hair. The other two have the more familiar olive skin and black hair and are watching Cassandra's antics.

"Mala, I'd like to introduce my son, Kon-El."

Mala gives a short bow. "It is an honour to meet you, my prince."

"Um. Thank you? Ah, you too."

"You already know Donna."

Mala looks her over. "Hopefully it won't take us too long to scrape the rust off her this time."

Donna puts her hand on her hips. "Did I hit your head too hard last time I was here?"

Diana looks up. "Cassandra?" Cassandra obediently flies down and lands next to her. "This is Cassandra Sandsmark."

"The… Zeus' daughter." In the background black haired Amazon number two scowls slightly

"The same."

Mala kneels down to Cassandra's eye level. "It is a privilege to meet you, Cassandra."

"Hello Missus Mala."

Wolf takes the opportunity of Mala's face being down at her level to give her an investigatory sniff. Mala leans away slightly before standing up.

"This is her mother, Doctor Helena Sandsmark." Doctor Sandsmark starts to hold out her right hand then stops, presumably realising that there's no way for Mala to shake it while holding her spear and shield. "And this…" I take a step forwards and smile at her. "Is my student, Paul."

I nod to her. "Alan sends his regards."

"So, you're our new brother." She looks me over. "You seem rather orange for a Green Lantern."

I point my palms at her. "Power rings do come in more than one colour, you know."

"So I see." She turns back to Diana. "Princess, Queen Hippolyta has been informed of your arrival and is ready to receive you."

Diana nods. "Lead the way."

Mala and black haired Amazon number two take the lead. Diana and a slightly self conscious looking Kon follow on behind, Wolf sniffing at interesting new scents while being careful not to let her father get too far away. Cassandra takes a last look around and then goes for height, her mother looking up after her with an exasperated sigh.

Donna looks at Doctor Sandsmark. "Don't worry, I'll make sure she doesn't get into any trouble."

"Thank you."

Donna takes off after her while Doctor Sandsmark and I follow on behind Diana and Kon with red haired Amazon and black haired Amazon number one bringing up the rear.

Seems to be going well so far.

**8th January  
13:59 GMT +3**

The city of Themyscira has two fortified walls, one ringing the outside of the city proper and a second one about two thirds of the way in, which contains most of the largest pieces of civil infrastructure; the palace, the senate -not quite as formal a place as it sounds- and the Great Temples of the five goddesses who made all this possible. And Hera. I always thought she was one of the five but apparently she missed that boat. The inner part of the city is quite a bit higher than the rest, though the city as a whole slopes up towards the base of what is either a small mountain or a large hill just a little inland from the city. Outside the city on the shore side is a small wooden dock used mostly by fisherwomen. There **is** a naval dock, but it isn't very big and I rather get the impression that they mostly maintain it out of tradition.

I'm not.. _completely_ clear why the landing zone for the invisible plane is in the lower part of the city. Given how old a lot of this place is I'm going to assume it was just easier to make space there than it was anywhere else. The practical outcome for us is that we're having to walk through the city's main thoroughfare in order to get up to the palace and we're attracting more than a few curious looks. No one's screaming yet, which I suppose is a sensible minimal level at which I can count this first encounter a success. No one-. Oh, there's one, but no one **else** has been openly scowling at either me or Kon. A few have even responded in kind when I've smiled at them.

Odd thing you don't really notice unless you're looking for it; no children. The youngest woman I've seen looked like she was in her early twenties, though in reality she would have to be at least a hundred times that. On the other side of the curve, no **really** old looking old women. There's some grey haired women about, but even they don't look in any way decrepit or worn down. As I understand it the Blessing of the Five doesn't give everyone super strength or toughness of the sort Diana has, but it **does** keep them at or near peak health and vitality. If you were old when the Exile happened you'll keep most of your wrinkles but you'll never get any new ones and you'd have started to have a great deal more energy.

Heh. Sort of divine HRT, I suppose.

Over to our right I can just about make out the roof of the coliseum over the tops of the houses. They may have steel production but there's no real use of steam power. Grain is ground into flour either by the use of windmills or animal muscle. Cooking is done with wood or charcoal, or if you know what you're doing with magic. I'm not sure if they brought Horses and Donkeys with them or if the goddesses provided but both are here now. Only about a sixth of the population live in the city, though that increases during the major festivals. The rest live in small villages scattered across the island, mostly farming and a few mining.

Diana's fallen into conversation with Mala, and from the intent look on Kon's face I'm going to assume that following Mala's barb about forgetting her native tongue Diana switched back to Themysciran Greek. He's _learning_ the language, but the local accent means that he struggles to keep up with native speakers in conversation. Doctor Sandsmark is looking a bit lost. Black haired Amazon two has taken the lead and the other two are back with the Doctor and I. Red Haired Amazon has to keep slowing down to avoid getting ahead of us as we take in the sights while black haired-. No, that's getting ridiculous.

I make eye contact with black haired Amazon one. "So, you know _our_ names..?"

A polite smile. "I am called Dyctinna." She looks over at red haired Amazon. After a moment she coughs meaningfully.

Red hair Amazon huffs. "Orana."

"You speak our language very well."

"Oh. No. Sorry, I'm cheating."

"Cheating?"

"The rings I'm wearing have a translation function. You hear me in Themysciran Greek, I hear you in English."

Doctor Sandsmark looks at me. "And I'm just hearing Greek."

"Oh, sorry. Here." I extend my environmental shield around her. "That should do it, as long as you're in close proximity to me."

Dyctinna looks at me curiously. "Green Lantern's ring couldn't do that. Unless he was just pretending not to understand?"

"No, Alan's ring was damaged before he got it. No AI support. It really crippled a lot of what a Lantern should be able to do."

She shakes her head. "Aie.. Eye? I don't know what that means."

"Artificial intelligence. Um, golem mind? A device capable of processing complex commands itself without precise direction."

A sidelong glance from Orana. "Your rings do your work **for** you? That does not speak well of your abilities."

I shrug. "A general commands an army, they don't lead every unit individually." The left corner of Dyctinna's lip curls upwards in a smirk as she glances at Orana. Orana pointedly ignores her. "Alan having to do everything manually left him with simple, close range constructs. I don't have that restriction."

"Eeee-"

"So what-"

"-eeee-"

"-else can it-"

"-eeee!" Cassandra lands on the pavement and ducks behind Doctor Sandsmark. "Mom! Hide me!"

"Um, I don't think I can-?"

"Donna's gonna-" Donna flies over the roofs, a big pile of damp seaweed in her arms. "Ah! Don't let the slime get me!"

Donna spots Cassandra, then makes a show of looking left and right as if she hadn't. "Now, where might Cassie be?"

"I'm not here! Owp!" She clamps both hands over her mouth. "I'm really not."

"Oh?" Donna grins and brandishes the seaweed. "Looks like _someone_ needs to learn about stealth the slimy way!"

Orana looks upwards at her. "Donna! You can't just drop seaweed in the streets. Take it back to the coast."

"O-ran-_ah_." Dyctinna shakes her head. "They're just playing. Don't you remember being their age?"

"No. I don't. And I'm sure my mothers didn't let me throw seaweed at people." Donna rolls her eyes but flies back in the direction of the coast anyway.

Dyctinna frowns. "How would you have even seen seaweed. Didn't you grow up in-?"

"Not the point, Dyctinna."

Doctor Sandsmark puts her left hand on her daughter's shoulder. "Cassie, I want you to stay on the ground now. We're going to see someone very important and you have to behave yourself."

"Okay Mom." Cassandra looks at our escorts, then runs off to play with Wolf.

Dyctinna watches her go. "She's the first child on Themyscira since the Princess." For a second I get a flash of.. some sort of yellow voodoo doll thing inside her? I make an effort not to look too deeply.

"And the first of Lord Zeus' offspring since-" Dyctinna shoots Orana a hard look. She clams up, chastised.

Doctor Sandsmark looks from one to the other. "Is that likely to be a problem?"

Dyctinna shakes her head. "Not with us. Most of us, anyway. Though.. I.. wouldn't go too near to Queen Hera's temple if I were you."

"That's a pity. I was hoping to get to see all of Themyscira's temples. There aren't any intact ones in mainland Greece."

Orana nods. "It would be safest. **We're** avoiding it too. Sometimes when the gods get angry it's best to just give them their space."

Doctor Sandsmark shakes her head. "I.. didn't even know he was **Zeus** Zeus."

The two Amazons stare at her as if she's said something incredible. Then they both burst out laughing.

**8th January  
14:08 GMT +3**

Dyctinna and Orana have just about stopped sniggering about it when we walk through the gateway in the inner wall.

"Mom? Why are they laughing?"

And there they go again. Black haired Amazon number two -apparently her name is Antimache- looks back at them, visibly annoyed at their lack of comportment.

"Well, honey…" Doctor Sandsmark tries looking at me, though whether for sympathy or advice I'm not sure. "Your father is very well known on Themyscira. They find it funny that I didn't.. recognise him. When we met."

"Oh." Cassandra thinks for a moment as we walk up the slope to the upper part of the city. What a lot of murder holes. "Does he live here?"

Dyctinna regains some measure of control over her mouth. "He has a.. residence atop Mount Skybreak. Though I do not believe that he is using it at present."

Cassandra leans into her mother. "But I wanted to meet him." Doctor Sandsmark strokes her daughter's hair.

"How long did this keep take to build?"

Orana takes a look around as we emerge into narrow unroofed corridor leading to steps onto the top level proper. "This? This is the… How many is..? Seventh version of the inner keep we have created."

Dyctinna nods. "When our people first came to this island, there simply wasn't enough food for us all to gather in one place. They spread out across the whole of the island, aside from what navy we had. They built a naval dock on the shore and the first keep… Oh, I'm not sure where it would be, now."

Orana looks up at the mountaintop looming above us. "Somewhere underneath us probably. It was only temporary. Once we had farms planted and we learned where we could fish, we started planning out a better design." She shrugs. "The goddesses blessings made it easier than it would have been. We get two growing seasons a year here. I barely remember what a real winter feels like."

Dyctinna shakes her head. "I've never seen one. There's snow sometimes on the top of the mountain but my mother says that it doesn't compare."

Doctor Sandsmark looks at her with interest as we ascend the steps. "You mean you were born here? I thought there weren't any men on Themyscira?"

"There aren't any more. The citizens of Old Themyscira lived segregated by gender. Since the male villages were closest to the borders they were the first places overrun during the…" She looks away. "Well. Only a small proportion of the first adult settlers were men. There were more boy children." She smiles, her eyes slightly unfocusing for a moment. "Orana, do you remember? There used to be a woodland near where the coliseum is now. I remember playing there with my brother Eioneus."

"Of course I remember it. I worked on the crew that cut it down."

As we reach the plaza I take my first unobstructed view of the upper level. The Great Temple of Hera is on our left. Being both queen of the Olympians and having the 'women' portfolio she has smaller temples all across the island, but this is where the main festivals honour her. I'm not sure if it's an Amazon innovation or they just didn't survive in other part of Greece but there are clearly decorated wooden shutters blocking our sight of the interior. Guess they weren't joking about keeping out of Hera's way. The senate building is a little further in. Buildings have to be reasonably well spaced out here to make up for the lack of artificial lighting. Immediately next to the senate is the royal palace. Neither building… They're not small, but they're not remotely close to the size of similar buildings in Britain or the US. Something to do with a lack of good materials? Or construction technology? There must be some materials that don't occur anywhere on the island.

"What happened to your brother?"

Aphrodite's Great Temple is next, slightly smaller than Hera's but apparently constructed of marble rather than the plain stone of her… What's the relationship between Aphrodite and Hera again? Half sister? Whatever. Hera's temple. The other four Great Temples have made effort to incorporate their patron's domains. The Great Temple of Athena is a multi storied library. Not many written works survived the Exile but her cult used to be active proponents of visiting the mainland to acquire new works and they've had three thousand years to write their own.

"He died. A sudden fit. Oh, he was quite old. It was sad, but hardly unexpected."

The Great Temple of Hestia is a sort of large Themysciran Ideal Homes type open plan house. This evening's meal will probably be prepared there and I can clearly see the sacred hearth flame inside. Feeding it is one of Queen Hippolyta's official duties, one which the histories in the Embassy library said that she attends to before breakfast. According to the history I read, the fire was carried all the way from its original counterpart in old Themyscira, kept going for the entire journey until it could ignite its new home. Not sure I believe that. This fire in turn was used to start its counterparts in the centre of every significant settlement on the island.

"I didn't think people aged on Themyscira."

The Great Temple of Demeter looks almost overgrown, though there's a clear order to the plant growth. Two priestesses -I'm going to assume- are tending a grape vine, one binding it to a beam while the other supports the ladder the first is standing on. The Temple itself isn't considered to be all that big a deal locally. If an Amazon wants to commune with nature she can just head outside the city and down the coast a little way. It's mostly here so that those who have to spend most of their time here have access to _some_ greenery. There aren't many temples to Demeter on Themyscira, but most farms have an altar devoted to her.

"That blessing only extended to the women. Men aged and died as they would have on the mainland."

"I hadn't thought about that."

I wince slightly as I take in the Great Temple of Artemis. "Is Artemis annoyed with me about the whole moon thing?"

All four of them look at me. Orana looks at the other two women and then frowns at me. "What.. 'moon thing' is that?"

Seriously? "Back in October?" Incomprehension from the Amazons. Oh! Right! The Amazons don't really use month names. There wouldn't be anything to translate the name to. "Late Autumn? About eighty days ago?"

Doctor Sandsmark gets it. "Are you trying to say… _You_ were the one who turned the moon around?" The eyes of both of our escorts widen. Glad they **noticed** at least.

"The Ophidian and I, yes." I pat the box containing my lantern with my right hand. "It was a bit of a strange week, really. I just wanted to know-."

"No." Orana shakes her head with some conviction. "I refuse to believe that you are that powerful."

"I'm not, normally, but the Ophidian is the Embodiment of Avarice, and these rings are fuelled by avarice in the same way green ones are by willpower. There was a training session that went a bit wrong-."

Cassandra grins at me. "And you made a giant cake!"

"Yes, we did. I always thought that people would fixate more on the other stuff. I mean the moon thing was kind of obvious. And all of the eyes…" There not being more fallout from that still strikes me as odd. "Didn't Diana send some sort of message saying what was going on?"

Dyctinna looks like she's having trouble getting her head around the idea. "You..? There is some sort of god..? In that box..? Which granted you the power to turn the moon around."

"Yes. More or less. So as I said, do you think Artemis is going to be annoyed with me? I can… I don't mind making an offering to her if that will smooth things over. Or Selene?"

We're going up the steps into the palace now. The open front leads directly into the main hall. Ahead, Diana looking back, waiting for us to catch up.

Dyctinna slowly shakes her head. "You would need to speak to one wiser in the ways of the gods than I. **Why** did you do such a thing?"

"At the time, we thought that it was a shame most people never get to see the other side of the moon, so we moved it so that they could."

Orana considers my answer before nodding hesitantly. "Selene.. may be alright with that?"

**8th January  
14:12 GMT +3**

Dyctinna and Orana drop back slightly as we reach the top of the steps. I glance at Dyctinna with my right eyebrow raised and she shakes her head. Guess they weren't invited. Donna swoops over the roof and swings around to land next to me. Okay, so what's the procedure here? I know quite a lot about Themysciran social ritual and… A-ooh, I didn't ask how formal this reception was going to be. Arse.

Antimache's broken off as well, though it looks like Mala will be announcing us. Donna and I form up behind Diana and Kon as we finish our climb up the steps. Four more guards are on duty up here, though these are wearing gold plated… That's orichalcum! They've got enough orichalcum to make full hoplite type armour! I **need** to talk to Io! Volume for volume that stuff outperforms everything I've been able to compare it to in terms of protection, **and** it takes enchantment far better than modern protective materials.

One of the guards notices me staring and narrows her eyes disapprovingly. Why would **OH**! She thinks I'm staring at… Right. I turn my attention away from her to the interior of the palace. Classical pillars support the roof… Heh, though I suppose when they were built they were 'modern, newfangled, what's wrong with living in a animal skin tent, kids today' pillars. The roof tiles are red clay and the walls are stone. That appears to be limited to important buildings; a lot of the ones in the lower city were baked clay brick instead. The floor and the interior pillars are marble and the pillars have gold and silver decoration around the base. I wonder why they used so much stone? It must take quite a lot of effort to get it here and it's not as if they're short of wood. Maybe when you're going to live indefinitely it seems more sensible to make something permanent than something you're going to have to replace in a century or two.

The… Reception area? Also has two fountains, water flowing into two shallow pools on either side of the walkway. With two growing seasons I suppose that keeping the place cool during the hottest parts of the year must be quite a challenge. No modern air conditioning after all. I'm tempted to give the whole system a scan… It's probably magic so I don't think I'd get much… No. Best behaviour. Ask nicely. If they'll talk to me at all I'm sure that they'll be only too happy to describe it to someone who has never heard the story before.

At the far end of the hall are the double doors into the throne room. Another two guards in 'elite' armour stand on either side and Mala walks forwards to address them. "Princess Diana, Prince Kon-El and their guests to see Queen Hippolyta." The guard on the left looks us over, then turns, opens her door the minimum amount possible and enters before closing it behind her.

Kon nudges me with his right shoulder. "You think I should have worn the armour?"

"No, you're fine as you are. Diana would have said something-."

"Everyone **else** is wearing armour." He looks down at his outfit. "I could have at least got a shirt or something."

Donna leans in from his other side. "Don't worry about it. Hippolyta won't care what you're-"

The remaining guard steps aside as the doors are pulled open from the inside, giving me my first clear look at the throne room. Queen Hippolyta sits on the throne on the dais at the far end. She looks like a slightly more mature Diana, perhaps a little more 'padded', and her hairdo must have taken an effort I've never known Diana to put into hers. Looks like it's naturally curly. She's wearing what looks to my eyes like a stola, the inner parts being white while the outer layer is a rich purple. In her right hand she holds a golden sceptre staff thing, topped with some sort of winged.. thing.

To her right stands someone else I can immediately identify from the photographs in Diana's office. Captain Philippus is wearing an even more ornate version of the orichalcum armour worn by the other guards up here. Her hair is tied back in tight braids which are held together with a simple tie at the back of her head. Darker skin than most of the locals, though Philippus is definitely a Greek name. No spear or shield but she has a sword at her waist. She looks a lot more on guard than Hippolyta but I suppose that's her job. And… Whow. That's a lot of violet light. I wasn't going to look but I can't **not** notice it. Forget red string, she and Hippolyta are tied together by violet **rope**. I thought Diana said that Hippolyta didn't have a consort? Some sort of political problem, maybe? Some of those books in her library suggested that Amazons used to be pretty racist.

Magala stands at her queen's… **Our** queen's left. She's wearing a simple green dress and shawl and holds an unadorned wooden staff. Another Amazon not of Minoan ethnicity. Maybe I got the wrong idea? She does look a bit odd, actually. Her features are unusually heavily set. I suppose that despite what comic artists would have you believe not all Amazons are supermodel material.

At Queen Hippolyta's feet a small black cat watches us with interest. I didn't think Amazons **had** cats. Maybe I should have brought Teekl after all? The royal court is completed by two women I don't recognise and two more guards who stand a little way off to the sides.

Diana leads us down the aisle, coming to a halt about five metres from the base of the dais. "Mother. It is good to see you again."

Hippolyta hands her staff to Philippus as she stands and walks down the steps. "Diana." She warmly embraces her daughter. "You've been away too long." She pulls back a little, leaving her hands on Diana's shoulders. Looks like she's a little shorter than her daughter as well. "And I thought that I might get a little more notice before the arrival of my first grandchild." Kon shifts a little uncomfortably as she looks at him, though it's more teenaged-boy-about-to-be-smothered-by-doting-grandparent uncomfortable than fear-of-rejection uncomfortable. "You've certainly managed to get back in shape quickly."

Diana shakes her head with a quiet chuckle before pulling away further and motioning Kon forwards. "Mother, may I present my son, Kon-El."

He blinks uncertainly. "Um. Hi." Looks like those etiquette lessons didn't quite stick under stress.

"Oh, is that any way to greet your grandmother." She opens her arms. "Come here, Kon." He's actually blushing slightly as she pulls him to her, resting her head against his before planting a kiss on his forehead. "How do you like Themyscira so far?"

"It looks.. nice. I haven't really.. seen that much of it yet." Something occurs to him. "Oh, we can speak in Greek if you want. I've been studying it."

"And have you been attending to your other lessons as well?"

He nods. "School's going well, and Mom's been teaching me about how Themysciran society works. I'm not sure I'm ready to address the senate yet but I know all the festivals and the gods' ceremonies."

"And have you chosen a patron of your own yet?"

He shakes his head. "Mom said I should talk to you and the priestesses first."

Ah. Not a total surprise, though Kon hasn't said anything to me about his religious instruction. I know how Amazon _society_relates to their gods but I'm less knowledgeable about how it works on an individual basis. In a way, the fact that the Amazons know full well that they can talk directly to their gods and in fact regularly do so makes theirs a most rational religion. On the other hand, it's a bit… Non-mysterious. Isn't it? Does that matter or is my atheism showing again?

"Quite wise. It isn't something you should rush into." She glances at me. "Will you introduce me to your friend?"

He turns to me. "This is Paul, Orange Lantern."

I genuflect, left knee going to the floor, arms crossed on my right knee and head bowed. "Majesty."

"This one's well trained. You may rise, Orange Lantern."

I rise at parade rest. "Thank you, Majesty. And.. thank you for allowing me to become a Themysciran citizen. I will endeavour to be worthy of the honour."

"I have every confidence that you will live up to it. You are Alan Scott's successor, correct?"

"Yes. Alan's been a great help to me. I don't think I'd have got anywhere with this whole.. thing, if not for him."

She nods, and then moves along the line. "Donna."

Donna bows her head. "Your majesty."

Queen Hippolyta holds out her hands and clasps Donna's hands in her own. "It is good to see you again. How long has it been since your last visit?"

"Ah…" Donna thinks for a moment. "Seven months? I'd like to come more but with school taking up so much time it isn't really possible at the moment."

Queen Hippolyta nods and moves along the line again. "Doctor Sandsmark, be welcome. Mnemosyne, my court historian, has been looking forward to meeting you since your visit was announced."

"I would be delighted to meet her."

Queen Hippoltya bends down. "And who might you be?"

Cassandra half hides behind her mother's legs, not daring to answer. Doctor Sandsmark reaches down with her right hand and gives her a small push. "Your majesty, this is my daughter, Cassandra Sandsmark."

"Hello."

"Well met, Cassandra." Queen Hippolyta stands to address us all. "There will be a feast tonight in honour of your visit. For now, join me in the dining hall for lunch."

**8th January  
14:17 GMT +3**

Two of the elite guards -must remember to find out what they are actually called- lead the way as our party proceeds towards the dining area. Not the banqueting hall we'll be using this evening, but the private room where Queen Hippolyta and her inner circle take their meals. If I remember correctly it has a view over the parklands and stables that lie between the 'back' of the city and the start of the mountain proper. Diana and Hippolyta are leading the group while the rest of us form up with 'outsiders' on the left and 'locals' on the right. More or less by chance I find myself on the inwards side of the left huddle, closest to Captain Philippus.

Since we're here… "Captain, may I ask a question?"

She glances at me. "So it appears."

Here too? "I meant-."

"What do you wish to know?"

"Why are the guards carrying **spears**? They're hardly the optimal weapon for individual or small group engagements."

"True, but the time it takes to toss it aside doesn't add significantly to the time needed to draw a sword. And you'd be surprised how off-putting most assailants find even a short shield-wall."

If the answer is 'at all', then **yes**. "Does that include assailants with grenades, or am I being unfair?"

That gets me another look. I think she's trying to work out whether I'm taking the piss or not. How can I take the piss out of a twenty first century hoplite? "It's extremely unlikely that anyone carrying grenades could reach Themyscira in the first place, and a fragmentation device wouldn't be able to penetrate the orichalcum."

"It would take out their legs, though. I haven't seen anyone wearing cuisses since I got here. And that's ignoring the explosive blast."

"This from a man wearing leather armour."

"This is my original armour. I've had three versions since I tried wearing this in a fight. And you'll note it **does** cover everything except my head."

"Why aren't you wearing your best armour?"

"This is a friendly visit. I didn't want to look too menacing."

Her right eyebrow creeps up a smidge. "Now I _have_ to see it."

"If you like." My power armour replaces the leather armour mid-step, resulting me gaining about five centimetres in height. The helmet has sensory feeds which allow me to see and hear as if it wasn't there -even without the rings- but it's still a definite mass on my head. There are normal eyepieces but those are only for when the sensors get damaged. "Tougher than any commercially available armour currently on the market, it incorporates-" I hold up my right hand and demonstrate the articulation. "-artificial muscles which boost my strength to beyond the limits of baseline Human physiology. Sensory augments in the helmet let me hear and see things miles away in perfect clarity. It's the best mundane armour I can currently build."

Philippus looks at me a little more warily. "It hardly looks mundane to me. Or are you comparing it to our orichalcum armour?"

"That exactly. Which is why I'm so eager to talk to Io. My skills don't extend-" I shift the armour back into subspace. "-to magic or metamaterials."

"How long can you wear it before it becomes uncomfortable?"

"Indefinitely."

"Hmm. I don't suppose it's something we could make here, is it?"

"Wouldn't have thought so, but I would consider it my duty as a citizen-" Ahead of us the door leading into the dining area is opened and Queen Hippolyta leads the way inside. "-to provide you with whatever equipment you needed."

She considers for a moment, then glances at the strawberry blonde woman I don't recognise. "I'd never get senate approval. And if it would make us dependent on one man for our equipment I'm not sure I'd disagree." I shrug. Slightly disappointing, but I wasn't expecting to revolutionise the place overnight. "Now I have a question for you."

I let her go ahead as we enter the dining area. The table is a horseshoe shape facing the balcony. Looks like we're eating.. barley flour flatbreads, cheese, apples and the servers are ladling soup into dishes next to the main plates. "Whatever you wish to know, Captain."

She looks at Kon and then at Donna. "Of the three of you, who is the greater warrior?"

The three of us look at each other, while the other blonde Amazon shakes her head. "'Who would win in fight', Philippus?**That** is the question you most want answered?"

"I suppose it-" / "Paul." / "-depends on what-" / "Paul." / "-equipment.. we're.. carrying." Philippus raises her eyebrows."Thanks guys. Thanks."

Hippolyta takes her seat at the head of the table with Diana on her left. Philippus walks ahead to take her place at her queen's right. Errr… Order of precedence when I don't know who two of the people are? Kon sits down next to Diana and then everything sort of stops. Ah heck, I was talking to Philippus, right? I take the seat next to her. Magala sits down next to me, Donna, Cassandra and Doctor Sandsmark take places around from Wonder Woman. Lastly, the strawberry blonde takes a seat next to Magala and the regular blonde takes the seat at the far end. The two women serving soup bow to the queen and are duly dismissed.

Philippus looks at me. "Why is it that you don't share their confidence?"

"It's not about confidence, it's about the.. situation. **Yes**, if we all had our best equipment and no restrictions on our movement I'd bet on me." I shrug. "But in my case you could give everyone on the planet their best equipment and as long as I had the Ophidian-" I put the box on the table and tap it with the ring on my left hand. "-I could still beat them. If we were fighting unarmed I'd bet on whoever was fighting _against_ me."

Blonde Amazon leans around her neighbours to address me. "And what is this 'Ophidian' that it gives you the power to take on the entire world?"

"The Ophidian is Embodiment of Avarice. She manifests in the corporeal world as a huge orange serpent."

"She is your goddess?"

"No, I don't… I don't **worship** her. She's more of a slightly weird ally."

Kon tears off a part of his bread and dips it in his soup. "Paul calls gods 'jumped up elementals'. I don't think he likes them very much."

My right hand covers my face as the locals stare at me.

Queen Hippolyta nods. "Diana did say that we had you to thank for the.. 'shipping containers'?"

I look to Diana for some sort for explanation. "Shipping.. containers..?"

"While you were merged with the Ophidian you delivered three shipping containers here, full of fruits and vegetables that aren't available on Themyscira. You didn't remember?"

"No. No, I didn't."

Blonde Amazon chuckles. "I particularly liked the.. curved yellow one? What was it called?"

Donna smiles in disbelief. "The banana?"

"Banana." She nods. "Our agronomists tell me that we could probably cultivate several of the varieties you provided, but we decided to wait until we could get more information on how they behave in the wild before we begin planting in earnest."

"I'll talk to them after lunch."

**8th January  
14:29 GMT +3**

The food is simple but extremely good. Fruit and vegetables are the only things that Themyscira exports -infrequently- and I can see why they command a high price. A combination of the blessing of Demeter and three thousand years of experience I suppose. They actually use crop rotation here as they don't have artificial fertilisers to keep the soil vital. Animal grazing I get, but I was a little disquieted to learn that they use Human waste in the same way. And they obviously don't have flushing toilets. With what they _do_ have, even the usually Luddite Amazons decided that it was perfectly alright for 'Night Soil Technicians' to use modern gas masks.

It's still not exactly a popular job.

"…be good if Prince Kon-El spent some time introducing himself in the city." Acantha -strawberry blonde Amazon- has been going over Kon's itinerary for the day. She's a long serving senator and a close friend of Queen Hippolyta.

"You can just call me 'Kon'."

"No, my prince. That would be quite improper."

"Okay, but… I'm not actually going to have to **rule** anything." He looks to his mother and then grandmother. "Am I?"

Queen Hippolyta smiles at him. "Grandson, I am over three thousand years old and I know full well that nothing lives forever. Eventually, I will pass -though praise the gods may it not be too soon- and Diana will take the throne. This is not to be bemoaned. It is natural." She looks over to Acantha. "Though on the purely legal question..?"

Acantha hesitates for a moment, then shrugs. "It hasn't come up before, not in any text I've read."

"Because I'm adopted?"

"Because you're male."

Acantha nods. "A younger sister would have precedence. Whether a prince with no siblings can inherit in his own right is.. well…" She shrugs again. "I don't think that there would be a problem, but at the moment there is no formal answer." She looks at Diana. "I don't suppose that we're in any danger of _getting_ another princess, are we?"

Diana bows her head, closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. "Not in the near future, Acantha."

"Orange Lantern." Queen Hippolyta turns in my direction in an attempt to stop her friend nagging her daughter about her personal life. "I understand that you wish to speak to Io."

"Yes, Majesty. I wish to thank her in person for the bow she made Artemis." Oh, hang on. "My friend Artemis **Crock**, not any other Artemises who might be in residence. I also wanted to talk to her about her work."

"I'm afraid that she's been rather busy in her workshop of late. You're welcome to visit, but I must ask that you not disturb her if she wishes privacy."

"Of course, and thank you."

Philippus takes a drink from her wine goblet then returns it to the table. "I'm not sure how much aid she would be able to lend you. Creating orichalcum is a time consuming business, even for her."

"You'd be amazed how much having a power ring on hand can speed things up."

"How so? I admit they are mighty weapons-"

"Nonono. Power rings aren't weapons. They're tools. There's this guy I work with in Poseidonis with who's revolutionising their industrial base thanks to these rings."

Queen Hippolyta look interested. "Oh? I have only seen Alan use combat constructs. Would you be willing to give a demonstration?"

I think for a moment. "This isn't really the place for a demonstration of engineering… But-" I push back my chair, stand and walk around to the open end of the 'U'. "-perhaps something musical."

I clear my throat and have the ring remind me of the words.

"I followed my queen"

Construct images appear as I sing. A much younger Hippolyta stands with Egeria, Philippus' predecessor.

"To a war in a far southern land"

A moment later the view expands, showing the two armies arrayed for battle. I took the description from the copy of Philippus' journal that was in Diana's library in the embassy.

"Where men said she should prove her throne."

With the bulk of Old Themyscira's army away with Queen Otrera, Crown Princess Hippolyta had to defend the heartland of the nation herself against an alliance of most of the peoples her mother had pissed off. According to Philippus' journal, Egeria wanted Hippolyta to stay back in the city. She refused, and took to the field herself.

"I stood with my queen  
And was ready to strike them all down"

I make a point of showing a young Philippus in the phalanx a short distance from Hippolyta.

"But my queen stood tall  
and reached out, and took sword of her own"

Hippolyta basically used herself as bait, causing her foes to attack her army -attack her- directly rather than burn their farmlands. The attackers also used spear blocks almost exclusively, allowing Amazon archers and horsewomen to flank and constantly harass them in a manner reminiscent of the Battle of Sphacteria. They were ground down to nothing, barely making contact with the Amazon infantry line.

"And as we departed, she said to me there  
Before warring and feud could begin  
If I am afraid to be beaten  
Then where is the pride when I win?"

The shot of Hippolyta clapping Philippus on the shoulder is entirely my invention.

"In word and deed  
I follow my queen  
The wisest among us and fair."

Hippolyta rolls her eyes.

"In word and deed  
I follow my queen  
The wisest among us and fair."

I allow the scene to evaporate, and replace it with one showing General MacArthur's office.

"I followed my queen"

The general is there, along with Alan, Jay and Diana. Real Diana's eyes widen slightly as she realises what I'm about to show.

"To the door of the vigilant squire"

The general -clearly angry- gestures at her to get lost.

"But a guardsman stood and barred the way  
I stood with my queen  
And was ready to strike the man down"

I'm not sure that I've interpreted Alan's description of Diana demonstration of her strength _completely_ right, but the dangling upside down and Alan's cheeky photo are completely historically accurate.

"But my queen stood tall  
And reached out, and shook hands at the gate."

Diana's formal welcome to the Justice Society. I replicate the effect of a camera flash as she and Alan shake hands.

"And as we departed, she said to me there  
Before warring and feud could begin"

I show a scene from one of the Society's fights with Mordru, one which was by pure chance caught on film.

"If I won't clasp hands with a neighbour  
Then how can I ask it of him?"

I show Alan block an arcane blast aimed at Diana with a construct and she returns the favour by lassoing one of Mordru's demonic henchmen away from him and punching it in the face.

"In word and deed  
I follow my queen  
The wisest among us and fair.  
In word and deed  
I follow my queen  
The wisest among us and fair."

I pause as if finishing, then switch to an image of the Mountain's kitchen.

"I followed my king"

Kon lets out a low moan.

"From his place at the mead hall's high seat  
Where the hungry sat in grim array"

Wallace radically underestimated the amount of time dinner was going to take that day. And he goes on about how Mister Allen is often late.

"I stood with my king  
And was ready to strike the cook down"

I didn't get _quite_ that bad, but I'd had a long day and he'd repeatedly told me he could handle it.

"But my king stood tall  
And reached out and he shouldered a tray"

I think the fact that it was kitchen-unfriendly Kon that was offering had as much effect as the help itself in motivating him.

"And as we departed he said to me there  
Before warring and feud could begin  
If I cannot serve in the kitchen  
Then how can I serve them as king?"

The team enjoying a meal together. I make a point of showing me apologising to Wallace and him brushing it off.

"In word and deed  
I follow my king  
The wisest among us and fair."

A group picture of the three of them arrayed in full battle raiment.

"In word and deed  
I follow my king  
The wisest among us and fair.

In word and deed  
I follow my king  
The wisest among us and fair."

I allow the image to evaporate and take a bow.

Queen Hippolyta laughs. "I see the bardic talent for the outrageous flattery of their patrons hasn't changed since we left the mainland."

**8th January  
14:37 GMT +3**

"…glad this outfit's bulletpro-" Donna looks at me then corrects herself. "-resistant."

Philippus looks thoughtful. "I don't know what to suggest regarding the Nazis beyond 'killing them all wherever you find them'. Undead warriors…" She shakes her head. "I've fought against Hades' undead soldiers before, but the ones which you faced sound far more vital. More intelligent, too. Perhaps the gods of the northmen have more faith in their people than Hades does."

Menalippe -the fully blonde Amazon and priestess for the pantheon as a whole- just about manages to school her expression. From what I've been able to tell the local version of Hades isn't the 'full dick' version from Justice League Animated but he isn't all that popular locally. He _has_ temples here but Amazons are more likely to make offerings at the smaller shrines of Aeacus or Minos contained inside it. Is now a good time to bring up my 'replace Ares' plan? Maybe not. Bit of a heavy topic with lots of room to cause offence. Be fun to talk to her about it later in private though. Part of my education on Amazonian religion.

"I'm just glad Klarion didn't have Diana or Batman try and give me an order. The fact that he didn't probably means that he didn't have access to your minds while it was going on."

Diana shakes her head. "You needn't have worried. The Oath hasn't bound you since you received your second set of tattoos."

What? "What? Really?"

She nods. "I didn't lie when I said that M'gann felt your pain, but I myself felt the Oath loosening. Since I could think of no other thing that could have caused that I briefly thought that you had died. That was why I was so worried when we spoke."

Menalippe looks at me with concern. "You escaped a sacred oath made to Gaea?"

"No!" Oh. "Well, yes. But I didn't mean to. It was a side effect of my wards. I suppose.. Gaea can't see me either. Is.. she.. likely to be annoyed about that?"

She thinks about it. "I should not think so. It is more likely that she is barely aware of it."

"Oh good. I respect Gaea and have no wish to antagonise her." I turn to Diana. "And I'm not going to start just ignoring what you say or anything like that."

"I'm glad to hear it."

Menalippe looks over at Kon. "Prince Kon? I have been meaning to ask; do you practice an American religion or do you intend to join our worship here?"

Kon looks at Diana. "Aah. I hadn't really thought about it? The knowledge the Genomorphs gave me didn't include any sort of religious faith, so…" He shrugs. "Until Mom adopted me it didn't seem important."

"In our religion, faith is seldom the issue. We know our gods. Several of us -Princess Diana and Queen Hippolyta in particular- have spoken to them directly. And they are seldom shy about letting us know when they are displeased by our actions." She doesn't quite look at the oblivious Cassandra, who's busy trying to feed Wolf under the table without anyone noticing. Wolf in turn is more interested in the cat which followed us into the dining room. "Rather, it is customary for an Amazon… It's been quite some time since we had anyone your age… It's customary for a citizen to choose one god to act as a guide for their moral and social development. They aren't required to be mindlessly obedient or.. blind to their god's faults but, before the Exile, it was a standard way of introducing a youth into the community."

He looks at Diana, who nods. "As a young girl I studied extensively under the priestesses of Athena, and those lessons define the sort of person that I am." She looks over to Captain Philippus. "That, and the captain of my mother's guard teaching me of the wisdom of experience in the practice arena." Philippus smiles fondly at her. "I had meant to introduce you to the temple later this afternoon. It would be your choice as to whether you join in or not, but I think you would benefit from it.

"I.. suppose..." He looks over to me. "What do you think?"

"Athena's not a _bad_ choice-" Compared to some Olympians, blinding people who see her naked not withstanding. "-but I think she's suboptimal for you."

"Sub optimal?" Menalippe looks at me curiously. "You mean to say that he could gain a greater advantage by worshipping another god?"

"Well, yes. I mean, think about it: how many Amazons have Athena as their primary deity at the moment? A tenth of the population? A lot, anyway. So her attention is split in a lot of different directions."

She shakes her head, smiling. "So if he picked a god who was _less_ popular, he would be more likely to benefit from their personal attention. That is.. an extremely mercenary approach to take."

"Thank you, but there's more to it than that. You have to work out what the god's going to want.. and what they're going to give you for it. A god with few worshippers is in less of a position to be demanding." Diana's wincing but Queen Hippolyta and Captain Philippus seems to find my approach amusing. "Which is why I'd recommend Helios instead."

Kon frowns slightly. "Helios? The sun god?"

"Yes. Kryptonians-" I hold out my hands in his direction. "-are solar powered. The head of the old Kryptonian pantheon was _their_ sun god, Rao. It makes sense. Plus, he's only got a small temple here and hardly any devotees. He can easily spare the time for proper mentoring."

Diana recovers her equilibrium and slowly nods as she tries to adjust to my attitude to the 'divine'. "I.. do see the utility, but I think that at Kon's age the lessons that could be learned from the goddess of justice and learning would be more useful."

I wave off her objection with my right hand. "You can teach him that."

Kon half nods before he notices Diana looking at him. "Well… That.. does kinda make sense. But if you really don't want me to-."

"No, this is a decision for you. I'm sure that Lord Helios' teachings will be just as valuable to you as Lady Athena's have been to me." Kon smiles slightly. "We can visit his temple later today."

"And what of you, Paul?" Menalippe appears to be taking my impiety with good grace. "Do you think the gods can offer you useful guidance? Or do you intend to try to convert us to the worship of your giant orange snake?" On the other side of the table Donna screws up her eyes and bites her lip and Doctor Sandsmark develops a sudden cough.

I think for a moment. Not really a surprise that she's asking. Having a patron wouldn't exactly _hurt_, but I'm still a bit… "I think I will." I pick up my goblet in my right hand. I filled it with wine at the start of the meal but I still don't have a taste for the stuff and it's still half filled. "Am I allowed to pick Metis? I realise that she's a.. Titan rather than an Olympian…"

Menalippe thinks for a moment. Tricky to negotiate between deities when some eat the others. "You could, but she doesn't answer prayers. I'm not sure what you would hope to gain from doing so. And that **does** seem to be important to you."

"True. Well… There's Hephaestus. I like building things, though I'm not sure my manual skills are good enough for him. Remind me, joining a cult requires the applicant to perform a public act of devotion, right?" Menalippe nods. "And the act of devotion can be anything thematically appropriate?"

"If it is pleasing to the gods, yes."

"I have a bit of a soft spot for Plutus… Is this goblet valuable?" I take a looks around the room. "Does it have any historical significance?"

"I.. don't.. think so..? In any case, Lord Plutus is not merely concerned with acquisition, but with good financial judgement and planning."

"Mm. I do respect Prometheus, but more as someone I want to emulate than revere. I don't know, maybe I should-" In one smooth motion I stand, bring the goblet up and hurl it to the floor! "**Hail Eris!**" The goblet shatters and the wine sprays outwards, coating the floor and splashing on the tablecloth. Eyes around the room widen at my declaration as I turn to Menalippe."That will do, won't it?"

She pauses for a moment, then hesitantly nods. "I would think so."

**8th January  
14:43 GMT +3**

"…pineapple." Dyctinna looks at me quizzically. "You truly do not remember doing it?"

I shake my head. "I lost quite a lot of that week when the Ophidian and I separated. We didn't cause too much of a nuisance, did we?"

I'm not exactly sure if I'm under guard or not, but three out of four of our original escorts are 'assisting' me in getting to Io's workshop. Mala went with Doctor Sandsmark to see Mnemosyne, Diana and Kon are taking a tour of the city and Donna and Cassandra were left to their own devices. I'm not sure if that's because Io's workshop counts as a high security area or because of my choice of patron deity. They certainly haven't made mention of it and their attitude to me doesn't seem to have changed; Dyctinna's still friendly, Orana reserved and Antimache doing her level best to pretend that I'm not here.

Orana shakes her head. "Not really. Moving those metal shed things-"

"Shipping containers."

"-was the most interesting thing that happened that year." She frowns. "How do you fit that on a ship?"

I generate a construct of a container ship and demonstrate the arrangement of containers on its deck. She and Dyctinna study it with interest. "Not.. been off Themyscira recently?"

"No." Orana leans closer. "How big is that?"

"Container ships over a thousand feet long aren't uncommon."

Dyctinna's eyes widen slightly. "Triton."

"And the god which gave you that power really dwells within your box?"

"Yep. Do you want to meet her?"

Orana looks nonplussed. "Do.. I have to be inducted into some sort of cult first?"

"No." I kneel, lower the box to the stone floor and open it. "You just have to be capable of feeling avarice." All three of them are looking on with bated breath as I pull my lantern free. "What?"

Orana tears her eyes away from it. "I've never seen one before. Alan never brought it with him."

Antimache narrows her eyes. "Where's the snake god, then?"

I close my eyes and take a breath. Ophidian.

"My Agent." Orange light strobes outwards, delineating her body in the air around us. My three guides take a step away from her as she swings her head in their direction. She's about eight metres long like this and maybe fifty centimetres around at her widest point. "New toys?"

"New friends, Ophidian. We've talked about this."

She flows around the available space in the corridor, tongue flicking out to get a better taste of their desires. "Constrained. Doesn't understand." She turns her head to me. "Your duty."

"I know. I'm on it." She extends her head forwards to nuzzle me before curving around to dive back into the lantern.

Orana stares at me. "That was your god?"

"No, I don't worship the Ophidian. Um, actually, that was part of what we talked about over lunch." They all look a bit stunned. "I'm happy to answer questions, but I really do.. want to see Io today?"

Antimache shakes herself. "Yes. This way." She stalks off down the corridor once more and the three of us follow her.

Orana offers me a wry smile. "Was Menalippe trying to recruit you already?"

"Kon's going to be joining the cult of Helios later today."

"Helios? Eos is a more common choice for those who like early mornings."

"It's the sun itself he wanted, not the effects of the sun. Kryptonians like Kon draw literal strength from the sun."

She nods. "I suppose that makes sense. And what of you? If you do not worship the snake creature..?"

"Uuuum. Eris."

She stops again and stares at me. Then she nods. "Having met you? Yes. That makes sense to me." She starts walking again. "Try not to bleed anywhere important."

Huh?

"So…" Dyctinna appears to have recovered. "I was wondering. You spend a lot of time with the princess, correct?"

"Yes?"

"In her last letter she mentioned someone. A.. 'Barda Free'?" I nod. "She seemed rather taken with her."

Orana rolls her eyes. "Oh, not this again."

I shrug. "She has trouble finding sparring partners. Barda is a highly skilled warrior and her physical equal. Actually.. Barda's slightly stronger."

"Oo_ooo_oh."

"What?"

Orana shakes her head. "Dyctinna's got in into her head that they're lovers."

"Um. I don't.. think so? I haven't seen anything.. and Barda's married."

"To who?"

"Scott Free."

"A man?" I nod. "Well that's alright then."

I take a moment to try and get my head around that. "It counts."

"Oh." Dyctinna sags slightly. "She's really not seeing anyone?"

"Not to my knowledge."

"Oh, this is getting silly. She's in her eighties." Orana winces slightly at her comrade's comment and pulls away, heading after Antimache. Dyctinna throws her hands up. "I could understand that she would find it strange to take someone from Themyscira as a lover, but she has the whole world to choose from! She should find a nice woman to settle down with." She looks at me for a moment. "Or even a man. That would be okay. I suppose. Alan seemed nice."

Antimache has come to a stop outside a door just ahead of us. I can hear the sound of hammer on metal from within. "While we're on the subject… How long have Queen Hippolyta and Captain Philippus been together?" Three astonished stares, then Dyctinna looks uncomfortable, Orana gestures to the heavens to vent her visible frustration and Antimache bows her head and clenches her fists. "Diana didn't mention anything about-"

Orana shakes her head. "They're not."

"What?"

Antimache shakes her head. "He hasn't even been here a day. This is stupid. It's _stupid_."

"Because they're very clearly-."

Dyctinna huffs. "We know. Everyone on the island knows."

"But they're not-?"

Orana holds up her right hand. "There are some things you just don't ask a queen."

I blink. "Okay."

Dyctinna turns to Orana. "It's where Princess Diana gets it from, you know. I'm sure that if the two of them would just-."

I step past her and knock hard on the door. "Io? " I hear the hammer getting put down with some force. "Are you-?"

"The spear will be ready _tomorrow_ Althesia. Not before, no matter how many times you ask!"

"Actually, I-."

"Which part of **'don't disturb me'** was too hard for you to understand! Come back tomorrow!"

I back away from the door. Ookay then.

**8th January  
15:27 GMT +3**

I look around the triangular patch of moor land. On one side we're bounded by the sea shore and on the second by the other side of the forest. A little further along the coast on the other side of those trees is the place where Diana and I landed when I first visited Themyscira. On the third side the slope of Mount Skybreak blocks our view of the city itself. Long ago the land here was artificially flattened and I can still see a few small stone walls in shapes which suggest long abandoned houses.

Mnemosyne tightens her shawl around her shoulders. It isn't cold, but there is an informal taboo about Amazons -female ones anyway- coming here, even over two thousand years after the last of its inhabitants abandoned it. "I don't really understand why you were so eager to see this. There are scrolls in Athena's library which could give you a far better idea of what it was like when it was still inhabited."

Doctor Sandsmark looks up from her tablet. "I wanted to get a.. **feel** for the place." She glances at what looks like it used to be the wall of a house. "Haven't you ever wished you could visit the places you read about?"

"Sometimes." Mnemosyne nods. "But of the places I would most like to have seen, little survives in the modern era."

"Would the dwellings have been for families, or did they have a barracks system like the Spartans?"

"Families, mostly. By the time this village was built the initial panic of the first stage of settlement was over." She points towards the tree line. "You can still just about see some of the buildings they set up for the earliest lumbering camp. That involved sleeping in what was essentially a communal barn."

Doctor Sandsmark looks around again. "I'm not sure why this place exists at all. I though gender segregation was abandoned after the Exile?"

Mnemosyne smiles. "Listening to some… Some women from the **old** city of Themyscira, you can get the wrong idea about how that worked. The segregation of genders was strictly enforced within the city-"

"Aside from the festivals."

"Well, yes…"

I raise my hands in surrender. "I'm _**really**_ not looking for them to be brought back."

"They were never fully abandoned, though obviously without men the reproductive aspect was no longer relevant." She shakes her head. "Anyway, once you got away from the main city and into the countryside, things were a lot less… Strict. Men and women still lived apart, but it would hardly be unusual for them to interact. In some cases even live in the same villages."

"But if only a few adult men took part in the settlement, why was a male village created here at all?"

"Tradition, mostly. And not just for the female majority. Most of the men who came here had lived in the area around the old city and were used to the division. They in turn took their nephews with them." She shrugs. "Others had become used to integration, particularly those who had grown up knowing nothing else. They saw abandoning segregation as simply another change in our society that came with moving to these islands. There was a brief attempt by some more conservative Amazons -female Amazons- to bring the old laws back into effect, but they were unable to gain popular support."

"Why was that?"

"Our menfolk knew more of farming than we did. In the first few years here with no reliable source of food we needed that knowledge more than we needed our old social customs. A small number of men would direct a platoon of women in ploughing, irrigating and planting an area, then.. harvesting the crops. Inevitably, a lot of the old social barriers were broken down. That may have been the first time men had positions of leadership over women in our history, and despite what _some_predicted it wasn't a disaster. Once things settled down, most of us remembered that obligation."

Doctor Sandsmark takes another quick look around. "The tree line.. would have been..? Over there?" Mnemosyne nods. "Orange… Um, Paul, I'm going to take a look."

I nod. "Think I'll stay here for a bit. I doubt that anyone's said prayers at the graves recently."

"I s-." Something occurs to her. "How far does your translator function operate?"

I wave her concern aside. "Far enough. Don't worry about it."

She turns away and Mnemosyne leads her in the direction of the forest. Huuuuh… All this is interesting, but not very productive. With Io busy at least until the feast this evening and Queen Hippolyta wanting to spend some time getting to know Kon I thought that I'd give Doctor Sandsmark a lift out here. I've already got the geophysics scans she wanted but I'm not really doing anything to further my own goals right now. I turn and walk in the direction of the small shrine to Hades which is the only building here that still receives any upkeep. Amazons used to entomb their dead in burial chambers carved into the subterranean rock, until the isolation and death drove one of the priestesses mad. Then they switched to cremation. This is probably the only graveyard on the island that actually has bodies in it, and as such-.

"Hey." I stop and turn to my left. A bald Amazon with pierced ears is sitting leaning up against the wall of the shrine. "You must be one of those 'men' things I've been hearing about."

"Guilty as charged." I give her a shallow bow. "Orange Lantern two eight one four at your service."

She smiles, looking me over. "My name's Seris. What brings you to Themyscira, Orange Lantern two eight one four?"

"Tourism. Also I.. sort of live here. I have citizenship, anyway."

She raises her eyebrows. "For real?" I nod and she blinks. "Well, that's.. different."

"I.. hope that doesn't offend-?"

"No, no. Always thought this place could use a good stir around. Just can't believe Hippo went for it. You actually staying, or..?"

"Two days, then as long as I don't cause a riot or something I'll probably be coming back on a semi-regular basis."

She frowns. "Why? I mean-" She waves her right arm in the direction of the shore. "-you can go anywhere, do anything. What makes you care about a musty old rock in the middle of the Aegean?"

"Because it matters to my friends." I lower my head slightly and exhale. "Because if they got rid of a few bad habits they could be so much **more**. Rather than.. cling to the past like-!" I stop. She looks more interested than offended but that's a fairly sacred cow I was cutting up for steaks. "Um."

She gives me an encouraging smile. "Don't stop there, you were just getting good."

"Okay. Like.. a limpet.. to it's rock in a magnificent example of self-ossification they… **You**, should be out there involving yourselves in the world! A society of warriors that still use swords and spears, it's ridiculous! I don't understand why anyone would live like this for so long."

Her eyebrows go up slightly. "You planning to do something about it?"

I nod. "The aim is, find out what Themyscira has to offer the world and ease the Amazons in to reintegrating." I could use someone local helping me with that and Diana's a bit too prominent. "Interested?"

The smile becomes a grin. "_Al_ways." She lifts herself a little off the ground, shifts over and sits back down. "Here." She pats the grass next to her. "Take a load off."

"Right then." I sit down next to her. "The best place to start would be to find a thing most Amazons already know is a problem and offer a solution which serves our ends."

She thinks for a moment, idly picking a flower from the grass and rolling the stem back and forth in her fingers. "Did you know there used to be a Discordian Cult here?"

"Here as in Themyscira? Or here as in-?"

"Themyscira." She shake her head a little despondently. "Didn't last. When their sisters decided to isolate themselves completely most of them went back to the mainland. Said it would be better to try their luck rather than be forced to mindlessly follow the same path until the end of the world."

"And the rest?"

"Walked into the senate during a debate and slit their own wrists in protest." Ooh. That explains Orana's bleeding comment. She suddenly smiles. "Hey, wanna know something funny?"

"After _that_?"

"You ever wonder why Ares makes such a big deal out of Wonder Woman?"

"Because she stands against everything he stands for?"

She shakes her head. "Come on, Greek gods. It's all about **family**." I shake my head in incomprehension. "Queen Otrera wasn't quite the peaceful and benevolent ruler her daughter Hippo is. She led her Amazon warriors all across Greece in a campaign which ended up pissing off everyone. She was so violent, so bloodthirsty, so skilled in the ways of war that she caught the eye of the war god Ares himself." She leers. "They banged. Like, a lot." Hippolyta is Ares _daughter_? I did not know that. "Not a lot of people know who Hippo's dad is. Amazons don't really care who fathered a child sired on campaign. Joke was, she had to call the war off to go home and have her daughter. If condoms had been invented they might have conquered the whole country."

"You're saying… Ares.. goes after Diana… Because he's her _granddad_?"

"Funny, huh? Guess seeing a warrior of his blood embrace peace is just too much for him."

"She is adopted. Technically."

"Mn." She shakes her head. "Gaea wasn't changing her nappies." I suppose not. Her expression changes from amused to thoughtful. "Though… While we're talking about families. Could you help me out with **my** nanna?"

**8th January  
15:35 GMT +3**

Seris and I touch down on the plaza just behind the Temple of Hera. "Transitioning back would have been faster."

She gives me a lazy half shrug. "How often do I get to fly?" The left side of her mouth curves into a smile. "Makes everything here look sooo small."

"It doesn't exactly look huge from ground level."

"Does if you've never seen anything else." The rear of the Temple has another entrance, a small door. The entry for the staff, perhaps? Seris walks over to it and tries the handle. Locked. She turns back to me. "Can you do something about this?"

"Yes, but I'm not sure I _should_."

"Nanna's been in here, on her own, for over a week now." She pulls a face. "She must smell like marathon runners feet by now. She's coming out-" She waves her right index finger at me. "-if I have to knock her out and carry her."

I walk over to the door, check for observers and then extend a filament into the simple locking mechanism. "Is she a priestess?"

Seris stares at me for a moment, then nods. "She's fairly high up in the hierarchy, yeah." I open the door and then gesture with my right hand for her to lead the way. She steps into the doorway and has a quick look around before leading the way further inside. "I tried talking to her myself and she threw an amphora at my head. We've never really got on…"

"I'm sorry to hear that. I.. suppose.. Cassandra's been a bit of a shock."

"Not to me." She pauses at an intersection and looks back at me. "I mean, come on: **Zeus**, right?"

"I like to believe that even gods can change. Do we need to make some sort of offering to Hera for being in here?"

"Eh. I'm fine and she can't see you remotely."

"I hadn't realised that was common-"

**"I can hear you!"** I give Seris an enquiring look. She rolls her eyes and nods before picking up the pace. **"Skulking around… In my house! My house!"**

"Eh, she's still at 'bellicose'. I was hoping she might have moved into 'stuporous' by now so we could just drag her out." Seris leads me out from the side passage into the main hall of the temple. Classical Greek, with pillars and statues of Hera doing things related to her various domains. The richly dressed -if moderately dishevelled- woman sprawled out on the steps leading up to the main statue of Hera at the end of the hall seems somewhat out of place, as do the amphorae littering the floor. Looks like someone's been on a major bender.

I hope this temple has a toilet.

"Hey Nanna."

'Nanna' manages to focus on Seris on the second attempt. "You. You! You… You did this!"

Seris rolls her eyes. "You said that _last time_, remember?" She glances back over her shoulder at where a wine stain and a pile of broken pottery mar a statue of Hera posing with a Lion. "I didn't have anything to do with 'this'. Zeus doesn't need anyone's help to be a giant man-slut."

Wow. Um. I guess she's getting drunk on her patron's behalf, then. I guess the Amazons I've spoken to so far weren't Hera devotees. "Ma'am, Zeus' behaviour-"

She jerks her head in my direction, frowning and squinting. "Who're you?"

"Orange Lantern two eight one four, ma'am."

"Oh. **Oh**! You…" She rises from her sitting position, moving to all fours in an attempt to get up. Some sort of gold coloured torc falls off her head causing her brown wavy hair to fall over her face. She tries to push herself up into a standing position but can't keep her balance and slumps sideways. For a moment she seems surprised by her new location, then gives up and slumps back. "You just **had** to find her."

Ring, can we sober her up?

Unable to comply. Target protected by means unidentifiable.

"If she wasn't tramping around right outside-" She manages to sit up for a moment. "-**my** Temple. On **my** island. I could just pretend." The anger fades and she's left looking distraught. "Just _pretend_ he cared about…" She sniffs. "He said he wouldn't do that anymore. I really thought he'd changed."

"With all due respect ma'am, that was somewhat unrealistic. At this point I rather think Zeus is too set in his ways for any agreement to mean anything very much."

"Hardly any worshippers… The Amazons wouldn't dare… How does he keep finding them?" She's looking right at me for answers, her eyes damp with tears. "Huh?"

Looks like we're back in morose. "As I understand it, a combination of rugged good looks and charisma. And not being aware of modern contraception. Look-" I walk over to her, using the rings to shift crockery out of the way and stack it at the sides as I do so. "-sitting in here in the dark isn't helping the situation." I bend down slightly to offer her a hand up. She blinks at me for a moment before taking hold… Okay, got you. She sort of slumps against me and _you could clean a laboratory with her breath_! Ew. "Do you know what I'd say to Hera if I could talk to her?"

"Tell..?" She rolls her head around to look into my eyes. "Well what **would** you tell Hera? She's listening _**very**_ carefully."

"I'd tell her to stop deluding herself. She has a bad track record of blaming the mortals or taking it out on the children.. but the fact is: Zeus is Zeus. He isn't going to change. Every so often he's going to go out into the world, find some attractive mortal and convince them to have sex with him. And she can either accept that… Be a total doormat about it. Or she can get a divorce and stop caring about it."

"No!" Her eyes widen and she pushes away from me. For a moment she sways and I brace to catch her but she steadies herself again a pillar before I need to intervene. "Can't do that. The Goddess of Marriage can't.. can't _**divorce**_."

"Why not? Isn't divorce a part of marriage?"

She tilts her head to the side as she stares at me. "That that doesn't that doesn't make sense. If you're **divorced** then.. you aren't _married_."

"If you're single you aren't married, yet everyone who gets married was single at some point. Plus, there would be nothing to stop her getting married again, preferably to someone who isn't a philandering arsehole. Lots of marriages involve divorce these days. Shouldn't a goddess whose domain is marriage have gone through the whole of the process, understand every bit of the concept they're responsible for?"

She looks thoughtful. Sort of. I'm not sure if any of this is sinking in. "So.. I should…"

"Marriage… As I see it, marriage is a formal pact between two people to behave in a particular way towards each other. It doesn't work if one of them isn't keeping up their end of the deal, especially if there's no fallout from not doing that. If that happens, then there isn't a marriage **there**, like how if someone cheats at a sport they're not really playing that sport any more." I'm not sure whether she's nodding or swaying. "I understand that they've been together a long time, but once she gets over the shock I honestly think that she'll come to understand that dumping Zeus is the best decision she's made since Greece went Christian."

"Just… No more Zeus."

"That's right." I try smiling kindly as I approach her again. "But for now, why don't we get you cleaned up… Then you can talk to Hera-"

"Heheh." I'm a bit worried about that smile. "No more… No more… I could… I could do that." I look at Seris, trying to get some sort of idea about how she wants to play this. She just grins at me. Okay, I get she's happy that her nan's leaving the doldrums, but-. **"No! More! Zeus!"** There's a blast of air and light from where Seris' nan is standing and then she disappears. Magic teleportation? I suppose a High Priestess might well-

Seris pulls my head around to face her, smiling up at me. "That went better than I could have hoped."

"Happy to have helped. But… Do you..? I think someone should.. probably go and get her before she-."

My eyes widen in surprise as she pulls my head down and mashes her lips against mine. She pulls back a little to judge my response, smiles wider at my shock and then leans back in, biting -Ow!- my lower lip before thrusting her tongue into my mouth. Okay, that's, um, hello? No, this is fine. **Surprising**, but-. Just as I start kissing back she pulls away, still grinning. "Oh you are so totally in."

"Um. Thank you? Um, I understand Amazon social customs on the subject but I'd.. like to get to know you a little better-."

She reaches into her cleavage, pulls out a small card and holds it out to me. Wait, what? I think I'm.. losing the thread a bit here. I delicately take it. The card is dark blue. On the front is some golden Greek writing the ring is refusing to translate and on the back is a.. discordian chao? I frown, look up and.. she's not there any more.

…

I think I need to talk to Diana.

**8th January  
15:43 GMT +3**

Seris. **S**-Eris. Aaaagh I can barely believe I did that! Sorry Diana, I just accidentally your entire pantheon. Is that bad? A wave of orange shoves the screen at the Temple's front entrance aside as I stumble out, the guards around the plaza turning to stare at me. "tEmPlE's OpEn FoR bUsInEsS." I squeeze my eyes shut for a moment. "Anyone.. see where Diana went?"

Ah, the diffusion of responsibility. Six Amazons as old as the farming of rice in Japan look at each other in confusion. I shake my head and float forwards, landing just in front of the two guarding the now empty Temple. I fix my eyes on one to make it quite clear that it is her that I'm addressing. "Hate to be a nag, but this is quite urgent."

She blinks, then her eyes narrow. "Why were you in the temple?"

"Clearly Hera didn't have a problem with it! _Please_!"

Her partner slaps her on the shoulder. They share a look, then the first waves me off and the second addresses me. "The Queen, the Princess, Prince Konel and Menalippe are visiting the forum in the lower city." I start floating upwards. "Then I believe they intend to travel to the Shrine of Helios. Do you require directions?"

"No, thank you, very helpful." The forum on Themyscira is a public open space used for various events, though sports and plays more usually take place in the coliseum. Perfect place for the Amazon equivalent of a photo op. Keeping my speed to subsonic I head up and over the city in that direction. Amazons have glass, but even leaving aside the potential for injuries if I go supersonic and cause a sonic boom making it isn't easy for them. I don't want to spend the rest of my time here fixing windows. Looks.. like.. the crowd's moving away from the forum itself, the royal party in the lead.

Gulp.

I look up into the sky and then have the rings show me the direction to Mount Olympus. No obvious meteorological abnormalities as yet. Would she have gone straight there, wherever there is relative to the world? I can sort of imagine her storming into the throne room only for Zeus and Ganymede to be out cruising, coming back only hours later to find her passed out on the floor.

I think maybe I shouldn't be trusted around gods.

Diana looks up as I come in to land next to her. "How goes the archaeology?"

"Doctor Sandsmark seemed to be enjoying herself. Um, I think I may have done something a bit stupid."

"How 'stupid' is stupid?"

"Just to check; the High Priestess of Hera isn't a high end magic user, is she?"

Menalippe turns in our direction as we continue up towards the shrine. "That would be me, in as much as she has one. And while I like to think that I am a competent ritualist, I don't imagine that I even begin to compare with some of the people _you_ have seen."

Diana's starting to look concerned. "Whhhy?"

"I may possibly have convinced Hera to divorce Zeus." Stares. "Sorry."

"He-." Diana stops herself. "_Hestia_. **How** did you manage that?"

"Bumped into my own patron at the man village. Didn't recognise her. She asked me to help with her nan."

Menalippe looks concerned. "Eris is **here**? On Themyscira?"

"She.. she left. Anyway, she said that her nan was in the temple, we went in… I thought she was one of the priestesses!"

Diana puts her right hand over her face. "P_aul_."

"She looked like a normal woman! And I.. made certain observations about her marital relationship and.. modern.. marriage customs… And she shouted 'no more Zeus' and left."

Diana winces more but Menalippe seems to be taking it a little better. "At least this shows that you made the correct choice in your patron, Tyche preserve us." She shakes her head. "How did you fail to recognise her when all of the statues in her temple show her face?"

"She'd been on a bit of a bender. Wasn't really looking her best. And white stone and living flesh don't really…" I'm going to need to start checking stuff like that, aren't I? I hold the card Eris gave me out to her. "Can you tell me what this says? The rings are getting stuck."

She studies it for a moment. "For a good time, call Eris on-" I snatch it back and slide it into a pouch. "It seems that she's quite taken with you. Are you a.. particularly chaotic person.. in your normal life?"

"In the.. sense that even positive change can cause sudden and unexpected societal shifts? I'm working on it." I take a moment to look around at a society that has excluded chaos since it went into full isolationism. And stayed medieval as a result, being completely left behind by the rest of the world.

"Do you know what happened to her last set of worshippers?"

"Yes, she told me. Repatriation and suicide. Since neither achieved the result I want you don't have to worry about me copying them."

The shrine of Helios isn't actually all that big. The Temple of the Heavens on the other side of the city is far larger, but this structure is sacred to Helios alone rather than being shared. Six pillars carved with images of the sun and its divine patron rise up from a stone platform and are capped by a stone dome whose interior is decorated with a depiction of the passage of the sun across the sky.

Kon's standing there with Queen Hippolyta, looking across the city towards the sun. "…exactly sure what Helios would want from me."

"There's no hurry, Kon. I am certain that between you and Menalippe you will discover something appropriate."

I increase my speed to approach them. "Or you could just ask me." They look at me. "What, you didn't think I'd suggest Helios without having an idea for the offering, did you?"

Kon smiles. "I suppose I should have realized. What is it?"

"You can read music, right?" He nods, and I take some sheet music out of subspace and pass it to him. He takes it and starts to read through it. "I didn't bring any instruments, but it should work well enough as a soloist piece."

"Ah… Are you sure about this?"

"Kon, I just got frenched by Eris." Queen Hippolyta blinks in surprise and looks to her daughter for confirmation. "I'm not sure about anything. But I _do_ know that it's been a very long time since anyone sung Helios a song not written on Themyscira." He nods as he flicks back to the first page and tries humming the tune. "How was the forum?"

Queen Hippolyta thinks for a moment. "Polite. I don't think they quite believed the two of you were real until they saw you in person. I imagine that the more confrontational members of our community will make themselves known tomorrow. Do you intend to address them yourself?"

"Yes. I need to know how much of an uphill battle I've got on my hands."

"You wish to change things here?"

"I wouldn't have picked Eris otherwise. Don't worry, I know things work by.. consensus. I'll be trying to change minds, not just doing stuff. I'm an iconoclast, not a saboteur."

She nods as Kon looks up from the music. "Do I need to face any particular direction?"

Menalippe looks out across the city. "Towards the sun would be best, though I doubt that Lord Helios will mind."

Kon nods. "Okay." He pauses for a moment and then looks skywards. "Two men walk on a beach in the sun…"


	48. Page 29

**16th January  
16:06 GMT -7**

I frantically pull the knife from my belt and slice at the weird flesh bubble around me. This stuff might be doing a number on my constructs but it looks like x-ionised knives work perfectly well. The gel.. stuff around me gloops out onto the stone effect floor of Cranius' secret room in the Omega Vault. **M'gann! Are you alright?**

M'gann fades into visibility, clutching her head. **I think so. What _was_ that?**

I sheath my knife, put a hand on either side of the cut and pull myself free. **I think it was Damien Kane.** I look around the room as I step onto the floor. The mound of flesh which was containing me grows out of the wall like unusually aggressive lichen. There's still some organic activity there but I'm not seeing either thoughts or desires and it isn't connected to anything else. The metal sphere I opened is torn apart, exploded outward by the strength of the escaping.. thing.

**Inkabod was telling the truth?**

Ring, sample. **The tissue sample doesn't match, but Doctor Manguy's notes showed that Kane's genetics were in constant flux even while he still looked Human.** Still, his obvious rage surprised me. I went through everything Kane wrote or said in interviews in preparation for this mission. He had a Zen like quality about him… Well, maybe not Zen. I doubt many Buddhists experience life as suffering in quite the same literal way that a malfunctioning second generation Un-Man can.**Aqualad, Kane's out and on the rampage. Can you..?** I can't hear him.

I look up at M'gann as her eyes glow brighter. **Something's preventing me from reaching them. We need to get back!**

I nod and attach a filament to her. Ring, Transition.

Transition function not available. Local conditions are preventing target acquisition.

Fine. **Transition's out.** I rise off the ground and shoot out through the vault door, M'gann only a short distance behind me. A volley of Crumbler rounds destroy the wall between us and the Doctor's rumpus room, then the far wall, then the wall at the end of the corridor and we're out into the air and oo_oh_ shit.

A colossal arm completes its throw, hurling one of the Muto-Rail trains into the eastern face of the Uncorporation building. Glass shatters, metal and concrete crumple and cracks spread across the entire surface. I only realise that I'd stopped breathing after checking that no one had been in the train.

"Keep your stinking trains, Schadel!"

A fleshy titan stands over Aberrance. It's malformed body is a red-brown colour, it's surface speckled with pale, vein covered nodules. It's vaguely humanoid, if a Human were made of wax and then repeatedly melted and allowed to harden. Actually, it… It looks like a giant Damien Kane, as he was shortly before his death. M'gann and I just stop in the air and stare at it.

"Just as was promised! I will cast the Un-Human, Un-Godly usurpers from our paradise! In the name of Kane!"

Kane.. lives in death. Wait, that's not Kane's voice. Ring, correct for size and distortion.

Just as was promised! I-.

Inkabod? Guess he's fulfilling his own prophecy.

**Up there! On its chest!**

Ring, magnify. More pustules like the one that held me. Near the centre of its chest I can see Kaldur trying and failing to get his Water Bearers to come to life. Two explosions flare out from the middle finger of its left hand as Robin leaps from its left forearm towards the severely beaten Western Mutagenics building, only to be caught by a barrage of tentacles and pulled back into the arm. He struggles and tears several of them off, but they regrow too quickly for him to fully break free. As soon as he touches the skin of the forearm a new pustule grows around him and his movements grow sluggish.

Artemis stands on a nearby hotel, shooting upwards towards its head. Its left arm swings down and she's forced to leap aside as it caves in the hotel's roof. I experience a moment of pride when I realise that without super strength that would almost certainly have captured her, if not killed her outright. Another plume of flame, this time from its left shoulder. Rob's sword is plunged in to near the guard and he uses it to keep himself anchored while shooting bolts of fire at the tentacles trying to reach him.

Kon and Wallace are stuck in another couple of pustules near the right hip while Raquel fires a force bolt at its head.

"I am the Chosen Warrior of the god of cancer! You think you can stop me?! Ah ha ha ha!"

White lines poke out of his titan's skin and a volley of bone shards fly-

-straight into my construct barrier. Rob looks up at me as he pours more heat into the arm. "Cheers mate. Wondering where you'd gone."

Kane's face above us is expressionless, and on the top of his neck hump… Inkabod grins like a loon as clouds of a noxious looking gas blow out of slits in the holes around him, forcing Raquel to back off. Her belt might protect her from kinetic impacts but it doesn't do much against acid or poison. Inkabod is sunk into the titan's flesh up to his waist, his hands sunk into smaller pustules on either side. Right, this should only take a moment. I fire a filament up at him-

Connection lost.

How the hell did he ward something this big? "Where's Troia?"

"Pulling people out of rubble." He glances up at the head. "There's some sort of magic barrier keeping him safe."

The right arm swings around to swat us. Quick check of the ground -yep, clear- and I form a particle beam construct. A thick beam of purple light slices neatly through its wrist, sending the hand plummeting to the ground.

"Stop queering my _pitch_, man! Wait, who's-? _Gruhhhhhhh_…"

The titan shakes and stumbles backwards as M'gann assaults its weak minded princeps. With him distracted Rob pulls his sword free and we both fly up to assist M'gann. Looks like he got the air manipulation spell working then, though when I told him why I called it Swift Wind he didn't seem too enthusiastic. Right, up over the face. Ew, the eyes aren't actually eyes. They're just plates of bone and flesh and the rest isn't all that nice to look at either, constantly moving and flexing as new flesh is created and consumed. I replace the particle beam with my usual railgun and load a Mageslayer round, a heads up display forming around the right of my head. Sephtian's still working on my next batch of these so I don't have a lot of them. Shouldn't be a problem. Aim to skim him? No, big boys rules. As long as it doesn't kill him…

The gun tracks as his eyes go red.

"No!"

M'gann shakes, goes visible and starts to fall out of the air. I grab her with a construct as the gun fires, skimming his left side and leaving a line which is rapidly filled in with red. No more shield, now I-.

He jerks downward. For a second his eyes return to normal. "Wait, what?" Then they go red again and he's pulled in up to his head. "Help!"

Oh for goodness… I form maser constructs and burn holes in the flesh around him. A moment later Rob makes it up and unleashes a circle of flame which extends downwards into the hump. Right, he can do that better than me. I connect a filament to the top of Inkabod's head and try extending an environmental shield around him. No luck. M'gann has recovered sufficiently to fly under her own power and comes up alongside me. She extends her arms, gestures and begins pulling Inkabod free.

I hear something snap and the titan starts to tilt.

Shit! Okay, they've got _that_.

**Rocket, slow down it's fall. Troia, get over here.**

**On it.** / **On my way.**

I throw a construct lasso over the titan and attach a filament to my knife. The titan's tipping faster to the right and there are still people in that building. Bloody Aberrance building codes and bloody rubberneckers! I pull, but construct resistance and massive weight don't make it easy. I replace the construct with steel cables from subspace as Raquel gets into position and the black blur of Troia at full speed flies into view. **Troia, support it while I get the hostages free.**

The pressure on my cables is suddenly reduced and I focus on slicing open the pustules on the likely impact zone. Not just my friends, it's been grabbing every Un-Man within reach and-. Oh no. It's removed their alterations. I free Sergeant Panoptes and get a view of his empty eye sockets. Petra and her exposed skull. Tripes with his war wounds reopened and his arms and legs gone. It's recalled the things made with Kane's tissue. I abandon my cables and start frantically trying to heal those I can while still freeing the other captives.

**Got him!** I glance up to see M'gann floating free with Inkabod besides her. I'm not sure if it's just his gunge coating but his skin has a decidedly grey cast to it.

**Impact area clear. Let it down.**

I keep cutting as the titan lands on the Uncorporation plaza. A full thirty nine mutilated Un-Men lie in construct beds to my left, while a few others -second generation and Janus himself- appear to have been unaltered. My team mates who had been captives wander in a daze away from their prison, surveying the catastrophic damage it wrought on the research centre of Aberrance.

Damn.

**16th January  
17:22 GMT -4**

"What. Happened."

Batman isn't messing us about this time, and I can well understand where he's coming from. Cranius was incensed, millions of dollars in property damage, people fleeing in terror, Un-Men crippled… Well, by their standards. I pretty much fixed them up to normal people standards. To top it all off Inkabod has become the heir of Kane in a way he hadn't expected: his legs were already beginning to mutate when we left. He'll be dead in a few years from the same thing that killed Damien. If Cranius isn't already dissecting him to find out how he did it, anyway.

And our team working together in public view.

While Rob, Zatanna and I focused on healing people our super strong colleagues shifted rubble, digging out the survivors and the dead. Objectively, the recovery operation went fairly well. I don't think anyone who survived the building collapses died of their injuries; the Praexis Demons were great at finding people. And afterwards, when Cranius had threatened us with everything he could think of, M'gann probed Inkabod's mind, allowing us to pick up the Las Vegas Kobra cell.

Twenty seven dead, including a third generation Un-Man whose brain modifications were forcibly extracted by the Un-Titan. None of us are feeling particularly good after this.

Kaldur looks like Rob's drained him again. "We… **I** did not anticipate such a direct move."

I nod. "Inkabod gave no sign that he had access to those sort of resources. As far as.. anyone other than Inkabod knew, the only part of Damien Kane left was in Uncorporation's control."

He looks directly at me. "Why did you think it was a good idea to release the part of Damien Kane which the Uncorporation had in its custody?"

"Damien Kane's records, his history after moving to Aberrance… There was nothing there which suggested a violent temperament. If he was aware enough to influence the third generation Un-Men, it made sense that there was a conscious mind there. If there wasn't, it wouldn't have taken long to repair the containment equipment."

Robin shakes his head. "From the timelines, Inkabod has already created the Un-Titan by the time he did that. It wouldn't have made much difference."

"Your initial efforts to fight the.. 'Un-Titan' met with little success."

Kaldur gives his head a very small shake. "It rapidly healed piercing injuries, physical attacks, freezing and electrical shocks. Our attempt to utilise the Sphere's onboard weapons merely resulted in Inkabod firing indiscriminately into the air. Given the risk that posed to civilians I ordered it to stop." He pauses. "Eventually we discovered that burning its flesh was more effective, but it could still regrow from the living tissue beneath."

"The-." Zatanna cuts herself off, not sure if she's supposed to speak. No one else says anything. "The stuff Aqualad and Superboy were trapped in was an alchemical solution designed to drain people's strength. Cornwall Boy could just drain it to stop it working, but no one else would be able to get out without help."

M'gann's head is bowed. "The extra.. brains he was using to control it made it hard for me to stop him telepathically."

"Why was it -despite scouting out the location where the Un-Titan was being created in advance- that you failed to realise it was there?"

"The tunnels had wards on them. Subtle ones. They didn't just stop me scanning, they made it look like nothing was happening."

Robin nods. "Same with sonic mapping. Nothing showed up as out of the ordinary!"

M'gann shrinks a little further. "I didn't feel anything either. I.. don't think Inkabod even planned doing that in advance."

"But he _did_ know that he had a piece of Damien Kane."

"I… He wasn't actively thinking about it. I'd have to have done a deep scan-."

Kon scowls. "And there wasn't any reason to. He was just some carnival huckster!"

Batman stares at him until he gets a hold of himself. "Clearly, there **was** a reason to scan more deeply. Or -_failing that_\- continue to monitor him once he revealed that he was the organiser of an anti-Uncorporation group. Aqualad, what prevented you from establishing a working relationship with Uncorporation?"

"Doctor von Schadel… _Cranius_, made it clear that he had no interest in working with outsiders. Once Kid Flash was forced to prevent Janus torturing Mister Bertoldt, we lost the cooperation of the rest of the organisation."

Wallace scowls. "Don't suppose there's any chance he's going to be punished to trying to murder a man with no arms and legs."

"The Department of Energy will be sending an agent to Aberrance to investigate events. Those of you not attending school next week will be offering your full cooperation." That's just.. Kaldur and me, isn't it? We glance at each other, then we both nod. "The.. scope, of events in Aberrance was far greater than I had anticipated. I want your mission reports written up tonight and in my hands no later than twenty three thirty." My team mate and I nod. "Dismissed."

We fall out, most of my team mates heading towards the showers. Kaldur hangs back to watch as Batman leaves the mountain.

"Recognised, Batman, zero two."

"That mission was a disaster."

"No, that mission was a sub-optimal success. We completed our objectives-."

"And twenty seven people paid for our 'sub-optimal' mission with their lives."

"Spree killing rampages happen, and there usually isn't any obvious warning. Robin and I were with you every step of the way. None of us spotted anything."

He takes a moment to compose himself. "Do you think Inkabod would have started his rampage if we had not spoken to him?"

"No idea. No… Yes, I do. He already hated Uncorporation, I.. sincerely doubt that he could have made the Un-Titan in a one day… He or.. whoever, must have been working on it for a while. Us being there might have prompted him to do it today rather than.. next week… Except that doesn't make any sense either. Why do it when you **know** there's a team of superheroes on site?"

Kaldur thinks for a moment. "There were points in the fight where he did not seem to be in full control of himself."

I rub my forehead with my right hand. "Kobra… Eve… Someone who we haven't met yet who knows something about Un-Men..." Constance Sunderland is not currently involved in Aberrance to any degree and I would be very surprised if Cranius tolerated her as he did in the comic. I can't think of anyone else who could have done something like that. "The one thing Kobra does better than the League of Shadows used to is magic. Or it might just have been the effect of plugging himself into the Un-Titan itself."

"Or Damien Kane."

"Not very likely, but if you want to check I know a sneaky necromancer."

"I do not think that will be necessary." He turns to leave.

"Did you hear if Garth and Tula got their request approved yet?"

He stops. "Yes. They will be joining us from this Friday."

"How long does their placement last?"

He turns back, looking… Not cheerful, but at least a bit less miserable. "Service with the team counts as active military service. Unless Atlantis goes to war it is possible for them to spend their entire careers here."

"Probably best if they spend _some_ time with actual army units."

"Yes, and they still have several years yet to complete in the Conservatory. The field posting will last six months." He realises something. "I suppose… They will leave us shortly after you will."

I suppose they will.

**Widdershins**

**17th January  
19:48 GMT**

"Whaw. That's some real hard luck you had there."

I turn up the right corner of my lip. "Oh, I don't know Alan. It's not that bad. Fifteen two, fifteen four, three is seven and one for his nob is eight." I reach forward and move the rear peg eight in front of its partner.

"I meant the whole.. situation in Aberrance."

"Yeah. I mean, there were a lot of things we should have done better, but it doesn't usually bite you in the arse quite-."

"Hey." Theodore 'Ted' Grant gives me a mock frown, then points at Danni. "Lady present."

She tilts her head slightly, but makes no other expression. "I am familiar with the Human posterior, Ted."

"I just think, standards should be-"

"You did not think that when you were younger. I distinctly remember you putting your hand-."

"Ah…"

"Have you got no points again?"

A second of relief, then he exhales in frustration. He tosses a two of clubs, a four and a Jack of hearts and a Queen of spades onto the table. "How do you even know how to play this game? No one your age plays card games that aren't poker!"

"Are you joking? Nan and Grandad-" He winces slightly. "-taught me how to _count_ with cribbage. Danni, got anything?"

"Fifteen two and three for six. A total of eight."

Alan smiles slightly. "You can just tell us what you get. We do trust you."

Ted shakes his head in disappointment at his partner's naiveté. "Speak for yourself. You gotta watch these sharks, Alan. They'll take you for everything you're worth."

"Give how far ahead they are, I think they might just do that anyway." He lays down his cards. "Eight for me as well." Two eights, a nine and a ten. He picks up the box. "_Uhh_."

"Hey, Danette, we haven't really caught up since you came back. How's being a robot zombie treating you?"

"Largely pleasant." She blinks. "Though I do find the constant hunger for Human brains somewhat strange."

Alan chuckles, but Ted looks momentarily nonplussed. "You can make _jokes_? Tornado never did that."

Without showing the rest of us Alan shuffles his box in with the rest of the cards before passing it to me. I give it a quick shuffle myself before dealing out the cards. I have discovered watching her play that Danni can't do a Data type fast shuffle, though Ted's been watching her hands carefully every time it's her turn to deal.

"Jokes are not complicated to make, though my capacity to appreciate the humor is limited."

"So why the long face?"

"I was originally programmed to automatically mimic Human facial expression. Since I am not currently trying to infiltrate the Justice Society for Father while keeping my nature as a gynoid a secret, I see no reason to present a false visage."

I pick up my cards. Three and Jack of diamonds, six and ten of hearts and a nine of clubs. Not great. Toss the ten and hope something turns up or toss the three? Aaaaaah. The three. Danni's already added to my box. Alan rearranges his hand for a moment before picking something to get rid of.

Ted's still thinking. "So.. do you walk around looking like that?"

"No. Usually, I allow the program to handle my body language. My elder brother leaves his on all of the time, though that may be because he is too stubborn to change it."

"That's that Lockhart guy, right?" Danni inclines her head slightly "Can barely credit no one spotting he was a robot." He takes another look at his hand. "Oh, dang it." He adds his card to the box.

Alan grins. "Yolanda making Uncle Wildcat use the swear box again?"

"Gotta set a good example for the kids, Alan." Alan cuts the deck and Danni turns up the Queen of hearts. "A**h**." Ted nods. "Okay. I can work with this."

Ted leads with a Jack. Danni's choice is immediate. "Fifteen for two."

_"Uhh…"_ Alan thinks for a moment. "Twenty three."

"Twenty nine."

Ted knocks on the table. Danni remains expressionless. "Thirty." Alan knocks and I shake my head. "For one."

"Ten."

"Twenty for two."

Ted grins. "Thirty for six. Anyone?" We shake our heads. "And one."

"Three."

"Eleven."

"Twenty."

"Hah, got ya! Twenty seven for three."

"No, that doesn't work. They have to be in order."

Ted squints. "Are you trying to hustle me?"

"No, really. We can check the rulebook-."

"No, no, that's okay. You're probably right." He looks at Danni. "So what are you doing with yourself now? Getting back into the cape business?"

"Thirty for one. I never wore a cape. I have not yet made a firm decision with regard to my future direction. I am currently splitting my time between America and the Logan Animal Sanctuary in Qurac."

"Ten."

"Twenty."

"Twenty four." Ted looks at Danni, who shakes her head. "One each then." We all reach down to pick our cards back up. "You like animals?"

"The Wildebeest are growing on me. Slowly. The main reason I spend time there is my growing infatuation with the owner."

"Oh? So you're..?" Ted waves his right hand in circles.

"Outwardly anatomically accurate? Yes."

"Two for eights and two for Queens."

"Three for three. What's his name?"

"Fifteen two, fifteen four. Marie Logan." Ted's eyes widen slightly.

"Fifteen two and four for four. Aaand." I pick up the box. "Nothing."

"Ah… So.. you..?"

"I am not…" Danni thinks for a moment. "My mind is not situated in a Human brain. I lack the parts that would cause me to experience physical attraction to one gender or another. And Paul was being frustratingly slow on the uptake."

"I was?" Alan snorts with laughter. "What?"

He coughs. "Just something went down the wrong way."

"Alright… So, what's she like?"

Danni thinks for a minute as Ted shuffles. "Determined. Running an animal sanctuary in Qurac is hot and hard work, to say nothing of raising her son Garfield on her own. I think perhaps the reason she was willing to become involved with me was that she had worked so hard for so long that she had no idea what to do with the free time she gained when we shared the duty of animal care." She smiles. "That is to say nothing of the occasional intrusions by the Bialyan army. Though those have stopped now."

Alan frowns. "You.. turn your facial-" He wiggles his right hand at his mouth. "-program thing on?"

"No. Why do you ask?"

"You're smiling."

"I am not smiling."

"Actually…" I nod.

She blinks, then raises her right hand to feel her still smiling mouth. "Oh."

**18th January  
06:27 GMT -2**

Sephtian makes a last check of his Dolmen Gates and then goes back to fiddling with his water armour harness. "It has been some time since I have had to 'cast on the move'."

"You have _practised_, right?"

"Yes. Well, somewhat. I was really more focused on the Gates and my _speech_, rather than the walking aspect."

"Sephtian, I can do the presentation myself if I need to."

"No.. no. My presence will increase the impact. I-" The jewellery inscribed with the runic sigils which will alter the properties of the water around him begin to glow. Since we're underwater the effect is far less noticeable than it will be on the surface, but the light seems to bend slightly around him. "-will manage." He brings his right arm up to his face, closely checking the aura for imperfections. "This man we are going to see; you mentioned that he is an idiot?"

"No, he's actually extremely intelligent. He just pretends to be an idiot because, a, it makes people underestimate him and b, it makes him more likeable. He probably won't know much about _magic_ but, surface world."

Sephtian nods. "He hardly needs to understand the technical aspects. In fact I.. don't think many Atlanteans could."

"Ready?" He nods and I take hold of the first Dolmen Gate with a clamp construct. Ring, plot route to London.

"Compliance."

Aaand transition.

**18th January  
08:28 GMT**

London City Hall looks a little like a dorsal fin made of glass. Several of the pedestrians walking on the pavement outside the building look up at me and the circle of stone and metal I'm towing. A few start heading away as fast as their legs will carry them but by far the majority get their camera phones out. There's quite a wind blowing but even so I manage to pick out the words 'orange' and 'cake'. _Huhh_. I suppose if you have to be known for one thing…

I float downwards towards the ground. I'm dressed in one of my black with orange pinstripe suits with tie and orange sigil cufflinks. My shoes are trainers, but they're black with orange decoration. A quick wave to the crowd and I start towards the door. The mayor of London on this Earth is the same man it was back home, Boris Johnson. I'm here to sell him on the idea of using Dolmen Gates to improve London's transport infrastructure. I mean, if there was ever a man who hated the RMT it's Boris Johnson, right? Integrating magic with mainstream society requires people to get used to using arcane devices in their everyday life, and I can think of nothing more in need of replacement with Dolmen Gates than the London Underground.

There's no way the Gate could fit through the door so I have to transition inside. Four armed response officers, two receptionists and seven civil servants goggle at me as I float over the metal detector just inside the doors and land in front of the desk. "Orange Lantern two eight one four, here to see Boris Johnson. Would you please let him know I'm here? He's expecting me."

"… Yy_es_." The woman -Shirley according to her name badge- presses a button on her computer, still staring at me. "Just bear with me a moment please." Her eyes unfocus slightly as whoever she's ringing says something. "Yes, I've got a, um, an 'Orange Lantern' here-." She looks annoyed for a second. "Well you could have bloody told _**me**_." A brief pause.

"Mummy, why is there a big circle in the air?"

"It's probably a piece of installation art. Don't point, Cynthia, it's not polite."

Shirley presses another button and focuses back on me. "I'm sorry about that. They didn't tell the front desk because they thought you would go in through the window."

Eh? "Why would I go in through the window? That would be a dreadfully uncivilised way to behave."

"Right. Um. They're waiting for you in the Assembly Chamber. Would you.. like someone to show you up?"

"No, I'm.. fine. Shall I go up now?" She nods. "Thank you." Ring, transition.

The Gate and I appear in the middle of the Assembly horseshoe, facing the mayor's seat. Which he isn't in. I turn-.

"Hello there!" Mister Johnson turns away from his PA and.. his.. Interim Director of Police Resources and Performance, who according to the ring is called Camilla Black. No idea why.. she's here..?

"Mister Johnson, good morning." There are actually several other people hanging around, politicians and civil servants of various stripes. I frown at them as Mister Johnson hurries around to the front of the horseshoe to get at me.

"Glad to have you here." He holds out his right hand and I take it. As we clasp he takes a grip on my forearm with his left and.. am I supposed to mirror the gesture? He doesn't look disappointed when I don't so I guess I wasn't. "So. Apparently you wanted to talk about our transportation infrastructure? Some dastardly villain planning some sort of mass kidnapping?" My smile becomes somewhat stilted. "Or terrorism? Rest assured that London's police stand ready to assist the Justice League-."

"Um, sorry, can we hold on a minute?" He stops. "To the best of my knowledge… Ring, check for me? Right. There are no attacks currently in the works. I'm here to talk about.. _upgrading_ London's transportation infrastructure."

"Oh." He looks over at… Oh. Everyone involved in running security services answerable to the major's office. "Dash it."

"Sorry."

"No, no, clearly I was reading too much into it. Um, is it a problem if they sit in? The cabbies really try and _gouge_ if we all leave at the same time."

I shake my head. "No, that's fine. Oh heck, you didn't throw out an Assembly meeting for this, did you?"

I can hear a couple of people trying not to laugh.

"Oh, it wasn't anything important. So, um… What's the stone ring thing?"

Right! Back on track. "If everyone would like to take their seats?" Mister Johnston nods twice and then strolls over to the chair at the open end of the horseshoe. The other seats around the table are swiftly occupied with a minimal amount of barging, and a few other people choose to watch from a standing position just behind them. The public gallery is empty, either because it's been cleared out or because it really _wasn't_ that important. Once everyone's settled I move the Dolman Gate to the right of the mayor.

"For near instantaneous travel over long distances, the Justice League use devices called 'Zeta Tubes'. You step in one end and -if you're authorised- you emerge at your destination about three seconds later. The problems with this system -including the truly ludicrous amount of money it costs to set up and run- mean that it isn't.. and may never **be**.. suitable for mass public use."

"**This**-" I nod at the stone ring. "-is a Dolmen Gate. Its design and construction has been a collaborative project between the Atlantean Conservatory of Sorcery and the Orange Lantern Corps." I pause and make eye contact with a few people. "We don't just do _cakes_, you know." There's some polite laughter. "When active, a pair of Dolmen Gates form a link which will cause someone who enters one to emerge from the other. There's no time lag, no loss of energy and no physical mechanisms to malfunction. And now, to give you a more thorough explanation…" I use a construct to snap the locking rune off the bottom of it, and Sephtian's laboratory appears on the far side. "I'd like to introduce its inventor, Professor Sephtian."

Sephtian steps up to the Gateway, flares his gills to take a deep breath, then steps through onto the carpet.

**18th January  
08:32 GMT**

_He_ gets a few stares. I even hear a chair scrape back as someone fails a fear test, though I do them the courtesy of not looking around to see who it was. When most people hear 'Atlantean' they think of Purebloods like King Orin. For obvious reasons those with heavier physical alterations rarely leave the sea. I'm used to Sephtian's robes just sort of drifting around him but with only the thin film of water being generated by his jewellery to support it they're actually hanging down. He does a quick check of his arms to make doubly sure that the charms are working. Odd to see him out in broad daylight like this. I'm also used to the muting of colours caused by Atlantean lighting conditions. Here, the blue-grey colour of his skin and the obviously inhuman design of his eyes stands out all the more.

He takes a moment to look around at the audience, before shifting his legs up and down to test his ability to support his own weight. "Hm. Rather glad that worked." He then shifts his attention to me. "Paul?"

Oh right! I send a filament into his water field and extend the ring's translation facility to him. He can _read_ English -if a bit slowly- but he struggles to speak more than a few simple sentences.

"Thank you." He takes a few steps outward towards the middle of the horseshoe and then turns to Mister Johnson, bowing slightly. "Your honour."

"Um. Professor." He doesn't seem to be failing to take this in his stride any worse than he usually does. "Welcome to London. And, um, the surface."

"Thank you. It's very…" He looks around the room. "Bright. And airy."

"So, whereabouts is, um…" Mister Johnson waves his right index finger at the Gate. "Where does that come out at?"

"The other end is in a secure room in the research section of the Conservatory of Sorcery in Poseidonis, the capital city of Atlantis. Or.. given that we have a City-State system.. perhaps I should say 'crown city'? Poseidonis is located a little to the south of here and about half way across the Atlantic.. and a long way down. I journeyed approximately.. ah, conversion, what was it… Four thousand kilometres, in no more time than it would take me to take a single step."

Getting more comfortable in lecture mode he begins walking around the horseshoe. "For the convenience and safety of your fair city the portal or 'Dolmen Gate' incorporates a subsystem to prevent the flow of water across the threshold. In Atlantis we use it to prevent water flow from areas of different pressure levels. Here.. well, it's essentially a hole to the bottom of the Atlantic. Water pressure would seek to equalise.. and you'd all get rather wet."

Mister Johnson tenses the muscles in his chin and nods. "Well I.. think we all appreciate you not doing that. So it's.. some sort of wormhole thing?"

I shake my head. "Wormhole techniques involve converting matter to energy, transmitting it and then reassembling it. That sort of thing still strikes me as rather unsafe.. though there _are_ spacefaring species that use things like that."

Mister Johnson gets Sephtian's full attention. "I'm not.. familiar with wormholes. The.. Gates.. utilise a form of sympathetic binding. Essentially, they convince the universe that they are in fact one object, so walking or swimming through one naturally causes you to come out through the other."

"They're.. magic?"

"Arcaneotechnology, yes. No one is 'casting' a spell. Rather, the magic is bound to the physical structure of the artefact."

"Right. Well. Gosh."

"The design is as good as I can make it. Now, we are looking for somewhere to field test it."

"You want _us_ to use it?"

"Yes. Given London's perennial transportation difficulties this was the first place I thought of when the subject was raised."

"How… How many people can fit through it?"

"There is.. nearly no limit to the throughput. The size of the aperture itself is the sole limiting factor."

"So any number of people can walk through?"

"There _may_ be _slight_ difficulties if a significant proportion of them are powerful magic users, elementals or gods."

"Hm. Don't think we've got too many of those but, um… _Exactly_ what might go wrong? People getting cut in half does rather give a bad impression."

"Oh, no, that can't happen. A person going through is either in one place or the other. We tested it thoroughly, and from the point of view of an external observer it looks like the part of the person that hasn't 'completed' it's journey just.. 'fades in'."

"Hm." Mister Johnson gets up from his chair and comes around his desk to get a closer look. Sephtian gets a brief once over -not impolite, just curious- but it's the stone circle that gets most of his attention. "What would happen if I stuck my arm through there?"

_"Boris!"_

"Oh, come on Clive, it's perfectly safe. Well? What happens?"

"You'd.. get wet. And cold. And.. the pressure on the far side is quite a lot more than is safe for-."

"Allow me." I touch a filament to him. Ring, protect but make the aura permeable by water at sea level pressure.

Compliance.

"Right. Well. Here goes!" Mister Johnson sticks his left arm through up to the elbow, holds for a moment and then pulls it back, shaking water onto the carpet from his drenched suit sleeve. "Gosh, that was chilly!" He holds up his left arm. "Hey, someone take a picture!" A couple of people obediently take out their phones as he poses. "We could put this at East Croydon, take some of the pressure off Victoria. Or Victoria and Euston, bypass the underground."

"We were rather assuming that you'd want more than one pair."

"Oh? How many have you got?"

"How many do you want?"

"How..?" He blinks. "Gadzooks. Are you serious?"

"We only have six pairs at present. Each pair takes.. three days work to enchant. We may need to reconsider if you want more than fifty pairs, but the data we would get from their use-."

"How much would this cost? For fifty pairs, I mean."

"Nothing. The idea is to use London to prove the value of the system."

"And how much to run?"

"It doesn't require external power. I.. think one service a year should be sufficient. Since this is a demonstration, I'm prepared to offer the first decade's maintenance for free. After that.. we can discuss matters. Whatever the market rate turns out to be."

"How.. **big**.. can you make them?"

"A little bigger than this. Larger than _that_ and we would need a new thaumatorium and the set up costs are astronomical."

"If you put them in sequence around the District and Circle lines…"

Boris brings his right hand to his mouth, thinking it over. "Wouldn't that rather scupper the Underground?"

I smile and raise my eyebrows. "And?"

He grins. "'And' indeed. Are you offering this to Paris? Or New York?"

"No."

Sephtian puts his right hand on my left shoulder. "He should say.. not yet and not for free. If this is met with success we will increase production and run it as a commercial enterprise."

"Alright." He pulls away slightly and addresses the room. "Quick show of hands. Who else thinks this is a great idea?"

**18th January  
10:57 GMT**

"Is 'e alright?" Raymond nods at Sephtian as the Atlantean bends down to peer at the ducks huddled up on the bank of Southwark Park's pond.

"He's never been above the surface before. He is now one of a very small number of Atlanteans to have ever seen a bird of any sort."

"You say so, mate." He looks at his cigarette, has a quick look around and then sighs slightly before returning it to his jacket pocket. Sephtian and I are drawing a crowd and while smoking in public is legal in London littering isn't. "Must be nice, gettin' out in the fresh air."

"I wouldn't boast about 'fresh'. I've seen London's air pollution figures."

"Presentation go well?"

"I think so. But Britain doesn't have any diplomatic relationship with Atlantis. We'll need import licences, then there'll be contract negotiations…"

He frowns, bemused. "I thought you were gunna give them away?"

"Not exactly. We were going to lease them.. and do maintenance for ten years for free. We'd still have to hash out who's responsible for what, and they'll probably want a surface company to do insurance. I mean, do _you_ think surface world insurance companies will be able to get their heads around magic related risks?"

He chuckles. "If they did, reckon I'd be a fuckin' millionaire by now."

"And then if someone decides to challenge everything in the courts -and the rail unions almost certainly will- we might still be hanging around a decade from now. I mean, look at the sodding airport expansion."

He thinks for a moment, and shakes his head. "When this gets out, who's gunna keep on about _that_? I mean, if you can just stick one of those things in Heathrow and another one in JFK, what's the bloody point of flying? Come to think of it, should I be looking for a new job meself?"

Ah heck. Global news network equals global overreaction. Building enough gates for a _local_ system will keep Sephtian's team busy for half a year. After that, the plan was to try and get an Atlantean company interested and lease the designs to them. There's no way we can produce enough Gates in the short term to replace the global transportation links, but the markets are going to be driven mental by the idea that we _might_.

"No. I mean, airports might be a target for whoever takes this project on once there's an actual market, but I don't think we'll ever replace cabs. The Gates are strictly point to point, one to one." Not _entirely_ true, we _could_ make multiple exit Gates but they're even _more_ resource intensive. "I mean, Saturday nights, if you wanted to send everyone home using Gates you'd have to have one Gate for everyone in the pub. Even if the pub could afford it, there wouldn't be room for anything else."

He nods. "Nice to know."

"You're right about planes, though. Won't be for years, mind…" I frown as Sephtian stares at a tree, then gently runs his right forefinger down its trunk. World economics here are a _little_ bit less insane than back home. I don't remember _exactly_when the last recession happened but I haven't seen any sign of it here. I wish I remembered more economic figures so I could judge whether it just hadn't happened yet or if there was an underlying difference between here and home. I should probably have thought about that a bit more before bringing the Gates to public attention.

"Suppose that'll mean cheaper holidays."

I turn my head to him and smile. "Oh, um, if there's somewhere you particularly want to go, just let me know. I don't mind flying your family around. I can even give you a tour of the Ice Fortress if you want."

"Oh. Thanks, mate." Sephtian wanders back in our direction, pausing briefly to stare in fascination at the crowds staring at _us_. "Where to next?"

"Ah, Mister Chandler. Would it be possible to take us to the 'Tower of London'? I understand that is this country's most notable prison for people with supernatural abilities."

"Well, yeah, it is, but they don't let the tourists in that bit. Be a bit of a crap prison if they did."

"Still, I would like to see it."

"Right you are, guv." He turns and starts back towards where we left his cab.

Sephtian dawdles for a moment, looking at the surface of the pond and then at the water around his own right hand. "I wonder…"

"Thinking of going for a swim?"

"No. I'm wondering what 'wind' feels like." The water around his hand flows up towards his shoulder, baring his skin. He then cautiously holds his hand up. "Hnm."

"Is that safe?"

"The lower pressure feels odd, but it isn't a problem. If I.. left it, it would become uncomfortable." Curiosity satisfied, he allows the water to cover him once more. He waves at the observers and then starts after Raymond. "You said that there was something you wanted to show me today?"

"Yes, I.. just thought it might be a distraction."

"Constantine might value the journey, but I'm more of a destination man."

"Alright. What do you know about mithril and orichalcum?"

"Ocean Master's armour is made of the former, King Orin's of the latter. Mithril we can still make, but it is incredibly resource intensive and.. the purity isn't all that it could be. As for orichalcum, it's a lost art. I was.. thinking about using the gold you provided and a sample from the royal vault to attempt to recreate-"

I take a small ingot out of subspace and hold it out to him. He takes it and starts studying it carefully. "There's a woman on Themyscira who can make both. The Amazon Royal Guard have full orichalcum gear. You know-" He extracts a wand from his robe and holds it against the sample with his left hand. "-how high metal purity makes enchanting easier? It turns out that it's the same for transmutation. I don't really know-."

His hands spasm and he drops sample and wand. "M_m_-m_m_-m_m_-m_m_-m_m_..?"

I catch both with filaments. "-how big a deal this is. I wanted to talk to you about it?" He's shaking. "Um. Are you alright?"

"I. Um. Ug. Bh."

"She was happy to make more for me."

"Pure. It's pure."

"Yes, I knnnow."

"The best armour in Atlantis is that worn by King Orin….. aaaand my opinion as an expert is that this is superior. His… The orichalcum making up his armour… This makes it look shoddy."

"Can it handle enchantments? Or does the magic inherent-."

He nods in a ridiculously exaggerated motion. "_**Ooh**_ yes. Yes. Yes it can. Oh my goodness me, yes."

"Because I was thinking.. armour? I mean, I don't know what the limits are here."

He snatches the ingot and wand back and starts scanning it again. "I'm… I'm not sure there _are_ any."

**19th January  
09:05 GMT -4**

"M_m_-m_m_-m_m_-m_m_-m_m_..!" Mister Kord's hands shake as he holds the small jovium rod.

"Um. Are you alright?"

_"Room temperature superconductor!"_

"Ssssort of."

He looks at me like I just shot his puppy. "**Not**.. room temperature.. superconductor?"

"Sort of room temperature super conductor. See, when Io first showed it to me, I didn't actually know much about superconductors? Jovium doesn't actually…" Maybe if I just showed him? "Okay, just.. hold that rod in the middle?" He shifts his left hand to the middle and takes his right away. I lean across his desk and take a cigarette lighter and a sheet of newspaper out of subspace.

"Ah… You know a super thermal conductor will distribute that heat equally across its mass, right?"

"Just watch. And drop it if your hand gets hot."

"… 'kay?"

I roll the newspaper sheet up into a tube and press it against one end of the rod. Next, I hold the lighter up to the other and flick the spark wheel. A flame appears immediately. The jovium itself doesn't change in appearance but a second later the newspaper is on fire.

"Huh? But… That shouldn't…"

"Magic materials don't necessarily make sense in terms of… conventional physics."

"Okay. Heat moves from one end to the other _instantly_… Something to do with the flow of electrons within… Maybe.. light speed rather than instantaneous.. the photon? No, no, no, that wouldn't…" He slides his chair back slightly and bends down to rummage in his drawers. I put out the newspaper and lay it and the lighter down on the desk. "You got a smaller piece?"

"Yes? What sort of size-?"

"About-" He puts a small metal plate on his desk. "-the size-" Some wires follow it. "-of a dime." His head reappears as he puts what looks like… I think it's supposed to be a battery. He plugs the wires into-. Oh, an electromagnet. I take a reasonably dime sized piece out of subspace and use a filament to hold it just above the metal plate as he attaches the wires to the battery pack. "Now, a _normal_ superconductor-."

"Floats in a magnetic field, I know."

He looks me in the eyes, then turns his head slightly to the side. "So.. do I get a clue..?"

"Nope."

"Hm." He takes hold of the jovium piece in his right hand and stares at it. "You're not putting a shield around it, so it can't explode… Amazons would have tried heat… Do they have magnets?"

"Weak ones."

"H**m**m." He leans forwards to stare at the metal, left hand on the battery pack's on button and right hand on his chin. "So; either it floats like it's supposed to, or it.. doesn't? If it channels energy it might.. produce a magnetic hose? Or just do nothing?" He sags slightly. "Welp, there goes _my_ productivity for the week."

"Are you going to turn it o-."

He holds up his right hand. "Bup bup bup! I want to work this out."

"Okay..?" I wait for a moment but nothing else is forthcoming. "Made any progress with the armour?"

"Yeah, you owe Aaron down in testing a new arm."

"What?"

"Broken in three places. Still not really sure how he did it."

"What was he doing?"

"Super jumps." He shrugs, still staring at the metal. "It's not like a computer game. You don't have any control while in the air. If you don't judge the launch right… Least it wasn't the elbow this time."

"So… Is the problem with the thinking cap system itself?"

"I think the problem's thick skulls. A couple of guys have actually volunteered for the implanted version."

I take a moment to absorb that. My own armour is controlled by a system which has learned my movements, and I hardly ever use it without the ring anyway. But -thanks to Theodore Knight and Nylor Truggs… And Doctor Cizko I suppose- I have the full schematics of the Thinker's Cap. A mind machine interface. I had hoped that connecting the wearers nervous system to the armour might bypass the need for learning. "But we already know that would work."

"Hey, you commissioned the research. You say 'wearable', we do wearable." He momentarily looks away from the metal to meet my eyes. "Lot of money in power armour, though. Government money."

"Maybe if they can run a super prison for a few months without a break out I'll consider it."

"_H_m, yeah. Okay. I'm going to saaaaay… Float!" He flicks the switch and lets go. The jovium drops onto the metal plate with a metallic click. "Darn it!"

"How about the invisibility?"

"_Why_ doesn't it… Oh, um, we made it work, and we _think_ we can shield the wearer from the 'crazy making' effect. Maybe. What you end up with is more like a mech than a suit of armour, though."

"You _think_ you can shield..?"

"None of the animals we stuffed in the cockpit showed any behavioural changes. Until we switch over to doing double blind Human tests it's hard to be sure. Aaand that risks a bunch of invisible crazy people."

"Does it affect robots? Computer circuitry?"

"Not that we've noticed." He turns the battery off and picks up the jovium disc. "Who exactly gave you this stuff?"

"Io." I generate a life sized construct of her, floating just above the ground.

He stares for a moment. Maybe I should have given her more clothes… "Oh, I have to have-. A.. _meeting_ with her. Can she.. leave.. Themyscira?"

"Physically? Yes. She'd start ageing again but it's not like she's _that_ old. I'm not sure if she'd want to, though."

"Does _she_ understand how this-" He wiggles the jovium disk. "-stuff works?"

"I doubt it. Her background is in metallurgy. Smithing, not physics or thaumaturgy.."

"And she's the only one who can make it?"

"She told me that she learned from Hephaestus. Apart from that? I think so."

"She give you anything else?"

I remove the construct, then deposit the samples of orichalcum and mithril that Sephtian didn't purloin on his desk. "This one-" I point to the mithril. "-is about eight times stronger than titanium for a third of the weight."

His eyes widen. "_Ahh_?"

"And this one-" I point to the orichalcum. "-is a bit heavier but a lot stronger."

"_**Ahh**_?"

"Apparently they both take enchantments-"

He lunges across the desk and grabs me by the shirt. "I **need** to **meet** her!"

**19th January  
16:21 GMT +3**

Myrto regards the chess board between us with suspicion. "Why are we not using the same pieces?"

On her side 'king' Hippolyta ranks up next to 'queen' Alkyone. Representations of Myrto herself take the place of the usual bishop, Charis the knight and Philomela the rook.

"Because we're not the same people."

On mine a robed Controller takes the king spot next to Queen Ophidian. I'm the bishop and my knights are represented by two Tamaranian warriors who I hope look something like Koriand'r and Komand'r. Sadly, with no Green Lantern presence inside the Vega Systems Stewart's ring didn't know exactly what they look like so I've guessed at eighties hair and swimming costume armour. My rooks are Vril Dox. Heh, though if he actually found himself in this position they'd probably turn out to have been robots all along.

"The pieces do the same thing, they just look a little different."

Her pawns are Amazon warriors while mine are Darkstars. Bit of a false equivalent, there. Pointy stick launchers versus maser cannons?

"I do not think I should play this with you."

Not moving away though, are you? "Why ever not? There's never been any prohibition against men playing board games in y-. In _our_ society. You don't have any duties to attend to. You _could_ make an argument that I shouldn't talk to you outside the-" I give her a salacious smile. "-_festivals_, but Queen Hippolyta herself authorised me to."

"Very well." She narrows her eyes slightly at me. "If you are attempting to convince me of your martial skill by showing that you have mastered a **board game**-"

"Pff! I haven't mastered _chess_! I've barely played for years." I pick up the Darkstar in front of my Controller and move it forwards one square.  
Pe7-e6  
"Then what do you hope to gain?" She considers the board for a moment before picking up Hippolyta's Charis and moving her to the board's edge.  
Kng1-h3  
"Relationship building." I advance my Controller's 'me' four squares. "When I spoke to Alkyone I think I was unnecessarily confrontational. In my defence, I rather like Diana and your captain refused to either provide evidence against her or even tell me what the charges are supposed to be."  
Bf8-c5  
Alkyone's Charis moves towards the centre. "Perhaps you should apologise."  
Knb1-c3  
I move my Ophidian up to her knight. "She doesn't seem to want to talk to me. And shouting it past you seems a bit rude."  
Qd8-h4  
Alkyone's Charis moves across the centre line, threatening 'me' and capable of defending Hippolyta if necessary. I retreat a square and a bowwoman comes forwards to protect the vulnerable Charis.  
Knc3-e4 Bc5-b6 Pd2-d3  
Hm. Myrto doesn't seem to have the same deep seated desire conflicts that her immediate superior does. "If you want me to prove my skill as a warrior I would be happy to tell you about the fights I've been in." Komand'r comes out to threaten Charis.  
Kng8-f6  
"H_pf_." She actually gives me a small smile. "If you wish to boast of your valour, you have chosen the wrong time of the year." Alkyone's Myrto crosses the board to threaten my.. Ophidian. Oh dear.  
Bc1-g5  
I pull her back a single square. "I'm not here to seduce every woman on the island. Not.. that you're unattractive-"  
Qh4-h5  
"Aphrodite forbid." Alkyone advances one square.  
Qd1-d2  
"-but where I'm from, we consider the _ideal_ family structure to involve the biological parents caring for their offspring. Siring a load of children would make it impossible for me to give them the attention I'd want to." I move a Darkstar forward to try and either chase off her Myrto or free Dox. "And I.. think I'd want at least _some_ emotional engagement with my partner."  
Ph7-h6  
She retreats her Myrto a square. "Are you unusual among the men of your homeland?"  
Bg5-f4  
"A bit? Oh, not about.. _that_. I'm sure you'd find plenty who would be happy to 'fire and forget'." She frowns slightly and shakes her head as Komand'r captures Charis. "Loose and forget?"  
Knf6-e4  
That gets a snort as Komand'r falls to a bowwoman. Suddenly free to move, Ophidian crosses the board to support me.  
Pd3-e4 Qh5-c5  
She hesitates for a moment. "How does the.. king and the rook thing work?"

"You move Hippolyta two spaces towards Philomela and then Philomela goes on the other side of Hippolyta." She nods and makes the move.  
e1-a1  
Darn it, I'm being out manoeuvred. "You don't seem to have the same problem with Amazons having children that Alkyone does." I move me up to threaten Alkyone. Need to get more pieces out!  
Bb6-a5  
She shrugs. "If the Queen has decided to encourage childbearing I trust that her decision is correct. I am a mother myself and my.. paramour was a comely enough man. I liked him." She moves a bowwoman forwards to protect Alkyone. "Captain Alkyone is concerned because you were selected by the Dragon."  
Pc2-c3  
"And what do _you_ make of me?" I advance a Darkstar to threaten Myrto, prompting her to retreat into a position to threaten the Ophidian. I pull her back a single square.  
Pg7-g5 Bf4-e3 Qc5-c6  
"Had I not known of the association, I would most likely have assessed you favourably." Alkyone advances to the centre, threatening Dox. "As it is, you could merely be an innocent she has involved."  
Qd2-d4  
"Involved in what?" I move Dox forwards a square. I need to deal with Alkyone. Myrto gives me a slightly suspicious look. "If I'm innocent, then it's-" _Ugh_. "-part of your job to protect your weak and feeble menfolk. If I'm in on it then either a) I know anyway, b) don't know but wouldn't care or c) _would_ care and so can be turned to your cause. Explaining what you think is happening doesn't cost you anything."  
Rh8-h7  
She moves a bowwoman forwards. "Except inform her of what we know. If you are false."  
Pg2-g3  
"You've been in prison for over eighty years. Even if I don't tell her what you tell me, you are in no position to threaten her. She wouldn't gain anything except a salve for her curiosity." I advance a Darkstar to threaten Charis. "And whatever she's been doing, if she's been at it for eighty five years then she's clearly not in any sort of rush. Plus, you might get information out of **me**"  
Pg5-g4  
"There is reason in what you say." Charis comes forwards, out of the way. I advance a Darkstar. "However, the decision is not for me to make."  
Knh3-f4 Pb7-b6  
"Can you talk to Alkyone about it?" She advances a bowwoman to exchange with my Darkstar and I take the trade before advancing my newly liberated 'me'.  
Pf2-f3 Pg4-f3 Pe2-f3 Bc8-a6  
She moves her Myrto to the side of the board to threaten the area around my Controller. I'd like to castle soon, please. "I see no harm in it."  
Bf1-h3  
"Thank you." I advance another Darkstar to give Koriand'r some space.  
Pd7-d6  
"Did you come to Themyscira today merely to entertain me?" Philomela comes forwards one square.  
Rd1-d2  
"No, I'm mostly here to speak to Io. I've been able to help her in the forge a bit and it turns out there's a huge market for her work in the rest of the world." I advance 'me' into a position protected by the Ophidian. She advances a bowwoman.. and back we go.  
Ba6-c4 Pb2-b3 Bc4-b5  
"Your need for arms is that great?" She pairs up her Philomelas and I get my Koriand'r out of the way.  
Rh1-d1 Knb8-d7  
"No, but our need for building materials is." Her Charis moves forwards and I finally castle.  
Knf4-d5 e8-e1  
"Building materials?" She looks a little amused. "How would you build something in her forge?"

"We can't. That's why I'm going to be asking very nicely."

**19th January  
18:33 GMT +3**

Io and I rematerialise on Lemnos and I link arms with her before she has a chance to get her bearings. I also take the opportunity to cover her in clothing appropriate to the temperature: away from Themyscira's second summer the temperatures on Aegean islands can get quite low in winter.

"What did you do?" She takes in the rocky hillside for a moment, then slowly turns her head towards the town of Myrina. "Where are we?"

"Lemnos, of course."

She jerks her arm free. "When I said that I wanted to consult with Lord Hephaestus, I did not mean _in person_!"

"Why not? Diana gave me his actual address, and he'll be the third Olympian I've met face to face."

"You are a **hero**. Of course the gods take an interest in your life. I am-." She blinks as a new realisation hits her. "Oh gods. I'm not on Themyscira anymore."

"Nope." I point down into Myrina. "That's Myrina, a town of about five thousand people. See how they're _not_ all swarming up the hill to capture you and.. offer you up as a sacrifice on.. some vaguely phallic alter to the god of patriarchy?" I spread my arms. "Welcome to the world. It's a town. They fish. In the summer there are tourists. Over that way there's some farms and over _that_ way is where Hephaestus built his first workshop on Earth after Zeus threw him off Olympus." I start walking in that direction. "Coming?"

I hear nothing for a moment, then the sound of her boots on the rocky path behind me. "Did you plan this in advance?"

"I made a point of learning about the Olympians after I so magnificently failed to notice Eris and Hera. If you mean 'did I always plan to bring you here', no. I thought that I'd just need to plead my case to you. And maybe Queen Hippolyta."

I can already see the entrance to his home up ahead. It's made with local stone and blends in with its surroundings. The upper section looks ruined, but the subterranean part is supposed to be quite nice.

"This is truly nothing to you, is it?"

"It'll be a bit of a blow if he advises you to say 'no'."

"You are walking to the home of a god, _uninvited_, because you wish for me to share the secrets of divine smithing with this.. 'Ted Kord'?"

"Because I want you to work with him. And probably teach other people."

"I… Did you have an apprentice in mind?"

"I was thinking more like dozens or.. even hundreds of people. Get them hammering metal until they're competent and then put them to work." I glance back at her as I step onto Hephaestus' stone covered patio and she's pulling a face. "We can use machines for shaping the metal, we just need people for the transmuting."

"If their souls are not at one with the metal they will not be able to do it. And even then it is not certain." Lets see. Hephaestus does mechanisms but not electronics or magics not directly associated with his nature. "I tried showing Pallas-."

Io cuts herself off as a section of wall drops into the floor. She gives me an interrogative look but I just shake my head. I know roughly where the opening mechanism is but I hadn't got as far as triggering it yet. A moment later I hear a familiar voice coming from inside.

"…woman. Or a man. I've forgotten which you prefer. Whichever it is, the important thing is that it involves you leaving this cave."

That was Hera. She sounds different when she's sober. More authoritative.

"Yes mother."

I'm assuming that was Hephaestus? He sounds a lot like the old man from Up.

"Good. Well, you think about _that_. I'm going to go lie on a beach. Or possibly a waiter." She comes up the steps at the end of the short tunnel, her attention focused behind her. She's wearing a white dress which displays her 'full bodied' figure to best advantage. She cleans up fairly well. "We'll see how things go." She checks her bag for a moment and only then looks up to see the two of us. Io -who's bowing at the waist- gets dismissed almost immediately while apparently I warrant a closer look. "Or maybe I won't need to go that-" I hold out my palms, showing the rings. "-fffarr…"

"Queen Hera." I give her a shallow but polite bow. "Orw… Should I still use the title?"

"Until Zeus tricks some other poor woman into marrying him."

There's a creaking noise as someone else mounts the stairs. "Who is it, mother?"

"My divorce counsellor. And-" She frowns for a moment, then smiles in recognition. "-an Amazon. One of your worshippers." A slightly closer look. "Not exactly pretty, but she looks like she's built for a forge." She sniffs. "And smells like it too."

"I don't date worshippers, mother. And I'm married."

"To a harlot. And you're not really in a position to be fussy."

Hephaestus looks towards the opening as he reaches the top of the stairs. He's a short, broad shouldered man with long greying hair tied back in a loose ponytail and a bristly beard a shade greyer. His right leg is twisted and withered, supported by a metal brace which is what is making the creaking noise. "Io. Good to see you. And the blatant disregard for propriety means you must be Paul. Diana said you might be stopping by. Welcome to Lemnos."

"Lord Hephaestus."

"Oh, don't bother with that." He shuffles to the side of the passageway and beckons her inside. "I've always got time for the most skilled amongst my mortal followers. Just head down to the workshop, I'll be with you in a minute."

Io straightens up slightly. "Thank you, my lord." She enters the building, edges past Hephaestus with an expression of confusion and excitement on her face, then heads down the stairs. Then-.

"You're here to talk shop too, aren't you?" Hera is pressing herself up against my back, her chin on my left shoulder and her arms around my chest. She's, um… A well developed woman. "You know, there was a time when mortal heroes sought out goddesses. We're very friendly when properly.. _appeased_."

"Athena rather spoilt that for everyone." I gently pry her hands away and turn to face her. "I'm very sorry, your majesty, but I do need to speak to Lord Hephaestus about metallurgy."

"Well, fine." She gives me a dismissive wave with her right hand as she turns to leave. "Don't blame me if I've found someone else to play with by the time you're finished."

"… … I won't!" I watch her go for a moment, blink, then turn back to Hephaestus. "Has.. she been.. staying with you since..?"

Hephaestus looks at me with tired, defeated eyes. "Paul, I am over four thousand years old. I do not need my mother picking up after me. Have you seen what she's done to my workshop?"

"Tidied things away?"

He rubs his face with his right hand. "I can't find anything. Now, I'm happy she's left Zeus. I really am. And it was nice to see her. For.. maybe a whole day." He meets my eyes. "You want my aid with something?"

"Um. Yes?"

"Persuade her to go someplace else and we can talk about it."

**19th January  
18:46 GMT +3**

I trudge down the steps towards Hephaestus' workshop. Dimly I can hear-

"…looked pretty, but we never really found a use-"

-him explaining.. something or other to Io. I don't remember Hephaestus at all from the comics and I don't think I should treat the one Justice League Unlimited episode he was in as a guide. The steps take a right angled turn to the left and I start to see into the interior of his workroom. Light comes from a series of flame-wreathed metal rods attached to the walls like torches, as well as Hephaestus' own smelter and furnace. There's an anvil as well as benches and tool racks, though the racks look curiously empty. Of the tools that remain some have runic devices carved into their surface while others look mundane. I think I even recognise a few modern brand names on the more sophisticated ones. Well away from the heavy heat sources is a planning area complete with diagram laden drawing board and metal technical drawing tools. There are also a few magazines, titles like 'Materials Today' and 'Engineering'. A slightly chipped mug bears the legend 'Smiths have the best tools'.

"Oh, you're back already." Hephaestus turns away from Io and the glowing green crystal he was showing her. "No luck? Or did you just get a bit too.. carried away?"

"No, she's gone."

"Quick work."

"Look… Not.. that I mind sexually assertive women, but I found that quite uncomfortable."

"Oh?" He waves his right hand dismissively. "Happens to the best of us."

H_uhh_. "Queen Hera and I did not have sex. I persuaded her that she would be better off relocating to the southern hemisphere where it's still summer. I bought her a suite in a five star hotel in Australia, paid for for the next two years."

"Mm." He nods. "Sensible."

"I also took the time to explain modern contraceptive devices. " And.. marital aids. I do not want to have that conversation again. She kept getting me to repeat the bits she found most amusing.

He looks thoughtful. "You know, a lot of trouble could have been avoided if someone had discussed that with Zeus. Little late by the time you got involved."

"I'm not even sure they work on gods."

"Chemical ones wouldn't, but unless fertility was an express part of the domain of the god in question barriers should work the same."

Io looks a little lost. "I'm sorry my lord, but.. 'barriers'?"

He looks back at her and sighs. "Aphrodite should really have talked to you ladies about this. You see, after-"

I wince. "Can we talk business first? Please?"

He shrugs. "If you insist. What was it you wanted?"

"I want to share knowledge of the working of mithril, orichalcum and jovium with the world. To use them in major engineering projects and technological innovations. A-and from the way a mage of my acquaintance was reacting, magic and arcanotechnology as well."

"Okay. And?" Io blinks at him. "What, you want me to make it for you?" He has a look around the forge. "Sorry, but even if I was prepared to do nothing with my time but help you, it's Vulcan's turn with our Etna foundry until the summer solstice. I'd only be able to make a few pounds a day. If you were doing any sort of big project-."

I take a gold coin out of subspace and toss it to him. He catches it with his left hand, examines it for a moment and then puts it in his mouth and bites it. "Complete purity. Diana never told me power rings could do that." He walks over to a pile of rock samples and bends awkwardly to pick one up. There's a slight shine to it. Metal ore? "Thing is, what bottlenecks a mortal smith -even a great one-" He glances at Io with a thin smile on his lips. "-doesn't mean all that much to a god like me." He puts the rock down on the anvil before walking away to pick up a runic hammer from where it leaned against the wall. He hefts it to reacquaint himself with the weight and balance before walking back to the furnace and thrusting it head first into the fire. "Io, could you work the bellows for me?"

"Of course, my lord."

She pumps and the flames grow brighter and hotter. Hephaestus' smile broadens in satisfaction. I note that he's not wearing protective gloves or a mask. "This hammer is called 'Flame Drinker'. Not much of a weapon, but it's great for transferring heat." His smile dims. "Vulcan doesn't know how good he has it. Did you know that unlike Ares, Mars is god of agriculture? And at least he had the decency to _marry_ Venus. Sure, he's not all that bright and he could stand to wash more, but at least he shows a **polite** interest."

"Do you.. intend to follow your mother's example?"

"My marriage was commanded by Zeus. I'm not sure if the reasons for it still matter, but I'm not going to try my luck with him _now_." He looks at Io. "Okay, that should do it." She steps back and he takes a firmer grip on the hammer. "Cool."

The flames vanish and a wave of cold air passes through the workroom. Hephaestus waits for a moment and then pulls out the hammer. The runes on its head are now glowing the white-red of hot iron. "Yeah, that's about right. Io, could you get the crucibles?" She takes five small bowls from a shelf and puts them down on the anvil. Each one has a slightly differently coloured interior, residue from whatever he uses them for melting. "Now…" He picks up a nearby set of tongs, grips the rock with it and holds it over the first crucible. "Gold." He brings the hammer down, tapping the ore gently. One of the runes goes out and there's a slight hissing noise as molten yellow metal runs out of the sample. He waits a moment until it's finished then moves on to the next crucible. "Silver." The hammer comes down again and this time the liquid metal is pale silver. "Copper." Again. "Zinc." Again. "And last and very definitely least, everything else." The remaining rock melts out of the tongs as he strikes it.

Hmm. Io looks entranced, but the most interesting part of that to me was the hammer itself. The ability to perfectly draw heat away from an area and store it somewhere else, **that** has possibilities. The rapid smelting..? Though interesting, that probably isn't a technique mortal magic users can learn fast enough to be much use, to say nothing of Mister Kord's engineers.

"I think Io was more worried about how you'd feel about your cult's secrets being shared."

"Why?" He turns to her. "Io, I didn't show you how to transmute metals so you'd be able to lord it over the other Amazons. I taught you because I knew you'd use it."

"Yes, my lord, but… The people he wishes me to teach do not worship the Olympians. I wasn't sure if that would be acceptable."

"Don't worship us? That isn't exactly a _short_ list." He makes a quick inspection of the hammer before lowering it to rest against the anvil. "Io, if I'm not prepared to share what I know, if I'm not prepared to teach people with enquiring minds and restless hands, then I don't deserve their worship. That said-" He turns back to me. "-if you actually want my _active_participation..?"

"I can put small statues of you in the rooms in which the work will be undertaken and we can probably do something on your festival days. Can't promise that anyone will take it seriously…"

"That would be nice. The Amazons dropped the Hephaesteia out of their calendar entirely."

"You.. **want** me to teach them?"

"Io, I gave that knowledge to **you**. How you use it now is up to you. That said, I broadly approve of just about all work done in my domain…" He turns back to me. "This isn't _just_ going to be weapons, right?"

"We're still investigating the limits of the materials, but no. We're not limiting it to weapons."

"What were you planning to start with?"

"Power transmission with jovium, and a modified Dolmen Gate that used orichalcum wire rather than gold wire."

"Dolmen Gates?

"Upright stone circles. You walk through one, you appear at the other."

"Oh, like Fae Rings." I nod. "I didn't think your society used magic any more?"

"We do a bit, but no, we had to go to Atlantis for the expertise for that. I'm trying to bring together all sorts of useful knowledge and get the people who use it to work together to achieve _more_."

"And Eris is okay with you doing that, is she?"

"Major social shifts involve more chaos than stagnation." I shrug. "I like to see things get built."

Hephaestus nods solemnly. "And so do I. I think we can do business."

**20th January  
07:59 GMT -6**

I float awkwardly in the air above mine and Guy's usual sparring area over the Chihuahuan Desert. Given all of the flashing lights there have been out here over the past three months I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that we've attracted a small audience. Fortunately the owners of the dusty four wheel drive vehicles that turned up today were understanding about the need to stay well back.

"So…" Difficult to work out what to say, really. "They.. give you any trouble? About the ring?"

Lantern Stewart moves his eyes to look at me, while otherwise remaining facing the direction of… Not sure what he's looking at. Away from _me_, certainly. "No."

"Did the.. Guardians want to talk to you about it..?"

"It's standard practice when a Lantern encounters something capable of destroying a power ring. They weren't angry, they just wanted to know what had happened."

"Will Lantern Jordan be joining us?"

"No."

"On patrol?"

This time he turns his head slightly? "Do you actually know what Gardner's been doing?"

"Teaching other Greenies assimilation resistance, I hope?"

"Yeah. Actually made a formal recommendation about our training practices." I do a small and hopefully subtle air punch. "Salaak was so surprised that he actually said it was a good idea. Out loud. Said he'd forward it for consideration."

"Okay?"

"Then Gardner requested permission to undergo the M'eelam Na'aquall ritual." I give him a blank look. "You don't know what that is?"

I raise my right hand. "Stewart riiioooohhh." I grind to an awkward halt before lowing my right hand again. "N-no, no idea."

He looks away again. "The ritual's halfway between a journey of self discovery and a demonstration of self mastery. It involves.. going inside the C-. The **Green** Central Power Battery and journeying through your own mindscape. Guess all that meditation you've been doing must have rubbed off on him"

Or he's trying to learn to regulate his connection with Ion. "Do all Green Lanterns go through it?"

He shakes his head. "No. Anyone who passed basic can ask for the chance to try. Most don't bother. It doesn't make you any more powerful. Not by itself anyway. Thing is, passing it is required if you want to join the Honor Guard."

"Is Guy getting promoted?"

"Not as far as I know. Can't imagine Gardner keeping quiet about it if he were." Noo, neither can I. "But between the training sessions and the ritual, it _looked_ like he was."

I think about it for a moment, then nod. "Jordan jumped in right after Guy came out, didn't he?"

"You bet he did. Which effectively means that I'm doing solo duty in this Sector right now."

"I'd.. offer to help, but I can't leave the system."

"Gardner's coming back until Hal finishes up." He creates a digital clock just above his ring. "In fact, he-."

"Hey guys." We both turn in the air to see Guy floating just behind us. He's wearing a green overcoat to go with his usual sleeveless t-shirt. "What's up?"

"Was it a tight fit, getting your head out of the Central Power Battery?"

"Eeh, we made do." He looks around, smiling beneficently at the desert, closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. "_Good_ to be back."

"Can we get started yet?"

"Oh, got a couple a' messages for the two of you. John, the Guardians want me t' teach you t' resist orange light stuff, so we should probably do some a' that today."

"Makes sense. Losing one ring is unfortunate. Losing two looks like carelessness."

"Yeah, but that's not why. Paul, I got some bad news." I brace myself. "Spoke t' the Green Man yesterday. He's the guy keeping-"

"Keeping an eye on Vega."

"Right." He takes another breath. "Those Construct Lanterns Larfleeze has? They're out and about. Most a' them are staying inside the treaty line, but a couple have headed out."

My eyes widen slightly. "That's.. not good. Did he say which ones?"

"He was ordered not to approach." I nod. Sensible. "Said they were headed roughly in this direction but there's a lotta space between here and there."

"Larfleeze?"

"Still sitting tight."

"And the other thing? The rings?"

He shrugs. "If they're out there, we haven't seen 'em. We had all the Lanterns in Sectors between here and there check the predicted flight path. They didn't find anything, and given how Oranges are supposed to usually behave…"

I nod. Anyone avaricious enough to draw a ring to them should be **very** obvious if they're using it. On worlds with sophisticated communications infrastructure the news would spread quickly and a Green Lantern could pretty much just check in to find out. On a more primitive world it could be a problem but their scope for malevolence would be a lot less."Just in case, it might be an idea to have other Lanterns come here, practise detecting Orange Lanterns and resisting assimilation with me."

Guy grins. "Offering yourself up as a training dummy? I'll pass it on, but I don't really think the Guardians 'll go for it."

"Why? I'd have though that they'd be overjoyed-." Guy and Stewart both raise an eyebrow. "Um, satisfied? To have some assurance that their Lanterns could fight Orange Lanterns effectively."

Stewart gives a small shrug. "Maybe they think you're still a risk. The Ophidian _is_ still in your Lantern."

Guy gives him a look. "Or maybe they don't like him proving they lied to us about Vega and the Psions."

"How is that going down in your corps?"

"Most of us hadn't even heard of Vega. Everyone who had?" He shrugs. "Operational security. Oh, hey, that reminds me." He pulls his coat aside slightly, revealing-

"Is that a gun?"

"Neural disruptor. Messes up force fields and disrupts nervous systems but _doesn't_ kill people. Green Lantern Corps approved sidearm."

Stewart frowns. "Really?"

"Yeah, it's in the field manual and everything. I **know**, I was surprised too."

"I think I'll stick with magic bullets, thanks."

Stewart loses patience. "Are we actually going to get any practice in today?" Guy and I grin at each other and simultaneously generate construct armour. "Hey, what-?!"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

**20th January**  
**16:57 GMT -4**

I perform a few last minute checks on the… I hesitate to call it a 'cosmic treadmill' because it isn't one. It isn't designed to travel through time no matter how fast you run on it. It certainly can't give you super speed, though it is only a few malfunctions away from propelling someone -briefly- at super speed directly into the protective force fields which surround it. What it does is use various pieces of New God technology to create a treadmill that can cope with a runner moving at super speed. Wallace's latest test-.

"Grayven?" I look around as Artemis enters the laboratory. Arms folded. Not a good sign.

I turn around to give her my undivided. "Artemis. What can I do for you?"

"I thought you were going to tell him."

Ah. Yes. _That_. "I was.. and.. then.. there was the riot, and Crassus, and chasing down Kobra." I frown slightly. "And _you_didn't tell me what that problem you mentioned was."

"Oh." She stops and _nearly_ looks back at the exit. "It's not.. really… Important." Then her irritation overcomes her… What, embarrassment? "But it's not as important as Wally not needing to eat like a pig anymore."

"I was going to run a few more tests and give him the news today. But actually, I'm far more concerned about potential bad news than good news. Artemis-" I lock the doors and block internal monitoring. "- whatever it is, you _**need**_ to tell me."

Her head slightly bowed she takes a quick look around the room before hurriedly walking up to me and motioning for me to lean down. "I'm…" She takes a deep breath. "Late."

I blink. "Wallace's session isn't for another couple of minutes. If you want to watch-."

"No, not-." Irritation and embarrassment war with one another on her face. "**Late**-late."

"Undead?"

"I mean my period's late." She makes an expression of angry exasperation. "_Urahh!_"

"Oh, that." Quick scan? "Nothing to worry about." She looks _slightly_ mollified. "Can't talk about Zatanna, but Barda's the same. No more cramping, no more mood swings _aaand_ no more blood pouring out of your genitals every month. I'll keep monitoring you, but until you actually want to have children I wouldn't worry."

She takes a moment to absorb that. "And.. then..?"

"Again, shouldn't be a problem. New Gods don't have the crazy population growth you might expect from an ageless race but we're well within replacement levels. Worst comes to the worst I'm perfectly happy to assist with reproductive cloning." She looks a little uncomfortable. "But I want to emphasise; it **shouldn't**. There shouldn't be any reason why you wouldn't be able to conceive naturally."

She nods, a little closer to normal. "Okay. Thanks…" Her face comes back up, right index finger pointed at my nose. "But you promise to tell-" There's a beep from the door. "-Wally!"

Unlock, internal monitoring to normal. The door opens and Wallace walks in wearing his yellows. Apokoliptian armour tries to resist the very things which allow the treadmill to work in the first place. "Of course. Wallace, do you mind if Artemis sticks around to watch?"

"Aah…" He looks at her and shrugs. "No, she's fine." He puts a bottle of water on a side table and walks over to the treadmill. "We starting with this again?"

"I thought we would." I turn back to the control system, Artemis coming alongside me to watch what I'm doing. "I'm going to try pushing a little further this time." He nods. "Normal protocols apply: if it starts going too fast or something unexpected happens, tell me and I'll slow it down as quickly as it's safe to do so." Another nod. "I'll bring it up to half the speed of sound in five seconds, and then.. we'll go from there."

He climbs up onto the deep black material which makes up the substance of the running platform and lowers his goggles onto his eyes. "You could probably go a bit quicker than that. I think I'm accelerating faster than I used to."

"Standardised testing, Wallace."

He walks to the middle of the platform and turns to look at me. "Yeah, but we're not really getting any new data at the low end."

"I'm monitoring changes in your body as well, remember." He gives me a reluctant nods and then returns his attention to his 'target', assuming a ready stance. I put my hands on the controls. "Starting in **two**… **One**…" I press the activation button and Wallace begins running on he spot. This part -as well as several contingency responses for if something goes wrong faster than I can compensate- is pre-programmed, letting me focus on his readouts. His heart rate is insane, but then his whole body is sped up. Anything I do to compensate, to work out how fast it is compared to the rest of him is.. educated guesswork at best. After a few attempts I decided that the only real way to tell if he was in distress was to get feedback from _him_. Sure, I _can_ use Velocity Ten to _briefly_ move fast enough to intervene, but how would I know when to administer it?

The treadmill doesn't look like it's moving but Wallace's movements are already blurry. Since his body and head stay in roughly the same place those are more solid but his arms and legs are reduced to smears of colour. I turn my head towards Artemis. "Even at this comparatively low speed he would struggle to hear us. I have to use the ring to speed up anything I want to him to hear." She nods, her attention focused on Wallace. "Ring, message. Second stage acceleration starting. Try to stay centred. Transmit."

There's a very brief noise, almost immediately followed by a second.

"Got it Grey-man."

"Gray man?"

I press another button and the treadmill accelerates towards twice the speed of sound. We found early on that Wallace now benefits from some -or possibly all- of the same physics opt outs as his uncle, so no risk of a sonic boom. "My name's Grayven, I'm male, I'm grey. It works." When we first started I brought the acceleration up only very slowly, but at the speed his body is now working that made it painfully slow for him. For a fraction of a second Wallace moves back _very_slightly on the conveyor but he immediately rallies. In fact, he's a little too far forwards. I press another button to trigger the 'centre' reminders.

"What does that mean?" Artemis is pointing to one of the readouts. It's looking a _little_ high… Not the first time it's done that.

"Arcane field strength. That's actually lower than it was the first time he went this fast."

"So he's using magic to go faster?"

"Nnnot consciously. It's like when you focus to send an arrow through a solid object." Another check of the monitors. Everything looks good here… "Ring, message. Okay, Wallace. Going to push it a little now. If you need to use the override, do it. Transmit." The sound is gone too fast for me to hear it.

"Go for it."

I nod, then rapidly tap a few more buttons. High acceleration, high jerk. I watch the arcane field strength indicator and there's a sudden peak which then drops back down. Hm. Wallace himself doesn't seem to be having any difficulty. Artemis narrows her eyes slightly and leans forwards. "Is something.. flickering in there?"

I'm _not_ calling it 'speed lightning'. "Yes. It appears to be a side effect of him moving at extreme speed. Or possibly the thing which enables it."

"How fast is he going?"

"Now?" I check. "About twelve times the speed of sound."

Her eyes widen. "I thought he could only go about _one_."

I shrug. "That used to be true. I haven't told him exactly how fast he's been going in there."

"**What**!?"

"Blind trials generate the best data. And since I'm ruining that today anyway…" I press a red button on the bottom of the controls and the readout changes to display 0.0006461. Another tap and the bottom three numbers blur. Ring, Velocity Ten.

I'm not sure how fast my body is moving relative to his. His arms and legs are still blurs but I can see his facial expression clearly. Confidence, determination… I think he's enjoying this. There's a dull, slow ping from the controls as the number reaches 0.002. He doesn't seem to be in difficulty. Ring, increase jerk factor. I've only got a few moments more until the Velocity… There it goes. Another ping at normal pitch as the number reaches 0.01. A few more… I don't want to call them 'lightning flashes' because they aren't electrical in nature. Arcane field increasing quite a lot… Still not really at a worrying level. It's below what Zatanna uses for low level spells. 0.02. 0.03. 0.08. 0.15. 0.2. 0.3. 0.4. 0.5. Maybe I should stop..? 0.6. The safeties _should_ work- 0.7. -even at this speed-. 0.8. -but I'm a little- 0.9. -_con__cerned_…

"Internal override activated."

The numbers start to drop. And so does my heart rate. Wallace is still in a sprinting posture but the analytic systems don't seem to think there's anything much wrong with him. From what little I can see he doesn't look to be in pain. Since his speed at this point is more an effort of spiritual might than physical power, his motions remain more or less the same as he drops back down. Once he hits 0.0001 the readout switches back to metres per second.

From his peak, it takes about two minutes for him to drop back down to what I consider normal jogging pace. He looks pleased with himself. Breathing heavily but not panting, sweating but not in any obvious discomfort. Still going, he looks out at his audience. "Well? How fast?" I press a few buttons to bring up his peak speed, then swivel the monitor so he can see it. 0.97. He frowns. "What unit is that? Kilometres per second?"

"C."

"C?" He starts to frown, then his eyes widen. "**C**!" He nearly trips and has to speed up to avoid falling flat on his face. "I was nearly at light speed!?"

"He was nearly-!" Artemis hits me in the chest. "You had that thing up to light speed!?"

"It's safe up to about one point five-."

Wallace blurs off the treadmill and grabs a computer console, calling up the test data. Pictographic representations flick across the screen faster than I can interpret them. Then they stop and he looks up at us. "I-it worked. I-I'm as fast as Uncle Barry."

"And that's not all." Artemis nudges me in the back. "Is it, Grayven?"

"No. Wallace-" Ring, unlock dietary data for Wallace's use. "-your calorie intake is down by about a third. You've cut out snacking almost entirely, and I've a sneaking suspicion that most of the _rest_ of your abnormal eating is down to habit. I'm going to suggest-" He steps a little unsteadily back from the console. "-cutting down further and observing the results." He takes a few more steps and collapses into a chair. "Um. Are you alright?"

"Yeah. " He pulls his goggles off and rubs his eyes. Goggles were probably a bit tight. "I really am."

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

**21st January  
09:27 GMT -4**

"…that I very much appreciate you coming." Red Tornado doesn't immediately respond. Fortunately, Lex has the sense not to turn up the smug any further. "I realise that my relationship with the Justice League-."

There's a slight whirr as Tornado inclines his head slightly and Lex stops talking immediately. "I am not here to represent the Justice League. I am here in my capacity as a private…" Another slight tilt. "Individual."

"But not a citizen. You **were** created in the United States? Certainly your.. 'father' Doctor Morrow was a naturalized American citizen."

"How did you talk him into doing this?"

I turn away from what must be the most uncomfortable conversation in Red Tornado's life to face Ms Graves. Guess I must still be on Lex's cool list; she doesn't usually talk to people while on the job.

"I'm a very good friend of his sister. When I pointed out what it would mean for other people in his position, he was… He felt compelled to agree that the law needed to change." She nods. "I.. waited until I had his agreement in principle before telling him that Lex was organising things."

Mercy nods, then raises her right hand to her right ear as one of the ushers reports in. "Excuse me." She turns away from me and heads towards Lex.

And _there's_ the rub. Working with Lex when I thought that the worst thing he'd done was arrange a few murders was one thing. Now, I know that he's a member of the Light and therefore shares responsibility for trying to mind control the Justice League. To say nothing of Roanoke Island, or of Truggs' theft of the ring.

On the other hand, him and his _must_ know the secret identities of the members of the Justice League as well as those of my own team mates and there haven't been any attacks. Batman and the Greenies and.. Nabu, have put some effort into checking and there doesn't even seem to have been any additional monitoring. Did they just.. not recognise anyone? Was Savage so sure of his victory that he just decided not bother finding out?

On the.. third hand, I don't know how the Light make decisions. Talia told me that she was never present when her father spoke to the other members, but clearly they each have their own interests separate from those of the group as a whole. Mass murder is very much _not_ Lex's style. Direct attacks against the League… Well, that _is_, but I still don't have hard evidence linking him as an individual to it. Batman and I have been monitoring LexCorp for 'exciting new developments' which could be based on materials appropriated from the Watchtower. So far nothing has turned up. Probably wishful thinking, but I'm still hopeful about the possibility of talking him around even if he _was_ involved.

We're due out on stage in a moment or two. Lex is finally announcing Dubbilex's formal appointment as Director of Project Cadmus. The G-Goblin himself is placidly enduring the attentions of a makeup artist. Lex's people made their best effort, but even so I don't think that the suit was a good idea. His frame doesn't quite fit Human proportions and the clothing does more to emphasise that fact. Unless.. that was their intent? The G-Elf, G-Dwarf and the G-Gnome mounted on the G-Troll's broad shoulders are all being spared the makeup brush. They're here to showcase Cadmus' achievements in the field of genetic engineering, not to take questions or give interviews.

Lex did politely ask if Kon would be available. I passed on the request, but Kon said that didn't really want a load of people staring at him like a lab experiment. Though he didn't mention it, I imagine the idea of being compared to Kal-El wasn't exactly a big draw either. With Diana taking responc-. With Diana becoming his mother he hasn't felt the need to follow up on Lex's offer of a familial relationship. I mean, as far as I _know_, anyway.

I asked Mister Queen about the Duke of Oil. After all, he was definitely created in the United States so he would be affected if we managed to get the law changed. Turns out that as an AI he can't be prosecuted for what he did in Star City so they've.. sort of impounded him instead. Long term it could be a bit iffy were it not for that fact that as he doesn't have a body he's stuck where they put him anyway. Mister Queen didn't quite turn me down but he did raise the question of whether the Duke would really give the impression we wanted. Having thought about it, I think that he actually would. There _will_ be AI criminals and the law should make it possible to prosecute them. Having him boast about his immunity to the right people might actually help us. But maybe not at the first announcement.

"Mary?" Lex smiles at the makeup artist. "Is Dubbilex decorated to your satisfaction?"

She takes a step back to examine him. "I think that's about as good as I can get. They just don't do powder for your complexion, Mister Dubbilex."

The G-Elf scuttles over to him. The two of them make eye contact and Dubbilex's horns briefly glow. Looking through another Genomorph's eyes? I suppose he.. wouldn't have had access to mirrors for much of his life. "I am certain that you have done the best you can."

"Well then." Lex looks around our little group. "Red Tornado, Paul, if you could follow me out and take your seats behind the podium. Mister… Oh, pardon me, **Director** Dubbilex, please wait in the wings until I call you out." Dubbilex and I nod while Red Tornado remains impassive. I don't really have.. much to do here, but apparently I'm sufficiently good for public relations that it's worth our while to have me just hanging around. And I am stumping up a good deal of money for this.

With one last smile at his new Director, Lex turns and leads us from the backstage area to the side of the stage. A quick ring scan shows thirty three journalists of various stripes, the range including everything from general reportage, law and politics to technology websites and magazines. There _are_ television cameras, but they are being operated by LexCorp employees. Makes sense as this isn't supposed to be a major announcement. In fact I expect he had to hint that something interesting was going to happen to get this many observers.

Lex tilts his head back a little as Ms Graves corrects the alignment of his tie, then strides out onto the stage to take his place behind the podium. I let Red Tornado go out next and then follow on behind him. The only person I recognise in the audience is Ms Lane. I suppose Mrs West-Allen and Ms Grant are more presenters than investigators. Tornado's presence wasn't announced in advance and there are more than a few exclamations of surprise, not to mention camera flashes. Since I'm in a suit rather than armour I am a good deal less recognisable. I.. think. Maybe me being here just matters less as I don't stand for the League?

"Ladies and gentlemen." Lex pauses, looking around the reporters and making eye contact with as many of them as possible. "Thank you for coming. I've invited you here today to talk about two things. Firstly, the appointment of a new Director for Cadmus Labs. Secondly, that I will shortly be mounting a sustained legal campaign to overturn what I believe to be the most repressive set of laws presently enforced in America."

Slightly over egging it there. United States versus Crane may have set the tone but it didn't go to the Supreme Court. It isn't **national** law, though other courts have tended to rule on similar lines.

"It was brought to my attention only fairly recently that while **I** -a man born in the United States to parents who were both American citizens- enjoy the full protection of the law, while.. a legal immigrant enjoys the full protection of the law and even a illegal immigrant receives a good deal of protection, there is a small but growing subset of people… Of intelligent beings, who enjoy no such protections. Beings like-" He turns slightly and gestures. "-Red Tornado, who was built in the United States in nineteen forty eight by an American citizen and who -for reasons that defy all logic- is still not able to claim American citizenship. Technically, as the law stands, he isn't even able to claim to be a person."

"Now, I'm not usually one for civil liberties campaigns, but the idea that a man with such a history of public service as Red Tornado has is not considered a person by the laws of his home country is something I will not stand for. We abolished slavery in eighteen sixty six and I will not see it reintroduced by the back door simply because the slaves are being built rather than born." Another round of eye contacts. As if anyone would argue with anything he's said. "But to return to my first point; Cadmus Labs was created to push the boundaries of genetic science. Since taking personal oversight of its work I have been-" Concerned face. "-truly disturbed by the unethical nature of the work that was being undertaken by the previous Director, Doctor Mark Desmond. So, without further ado, allow me to introduce the man who will be responsible for keeping Cadmus on the straight and narrow: Dubbilex."

Dubbilex's arrival on the stage is greeted with gasps of astonishment. Then the cameras start flashing. He doesn't look around, simply heading towards the podium as Lex steps aside for him. Then he looks out across the audience towards the back wall. Making eye contact during speech isn't something that comes naturally to a Genomorph: not much point when you're telepathic. He's had some tuition but Lex was of the opinion that his behaviour being a little off would work just fine. It reinforces the fact that he _isn't_ Human without making him appear threatening in a way that would harm our efforts.

"Ladies and gentlemen. My name is Dubbilex. I am a G-Goblin, one of a number of types of synthetic 'Genomorph' lifeforms created by Cadmus Labs over the last decade." He pauses as another barrage of flashes go off. "For most of that time we were treated as slaves by the project management. It is only since Lex Luthor took direct control that we have been treated as people, and I am all too aware that this has no basis in American law. I have Human equivalent intelligence and yet my legal status is that of laboratory equipment. Possibly even that of medical waste. I cannot vote. I cannot own property. My salary for my work must be paid to a trust, administered by Humans. An assault or a theft committed against one of us is not a crime, except as a crime against Cadmus property." He pauses. I don't think he really believed he'd get the opportunity to do this. "What my people want is equality, both for ourselves and any others who are unfairly denied it. Now-" His horns glow slightly and I notice Lex give an almost imperceptible nod. "-does anyone have any questions?"

The entire room jumps to its feet.

**21st January  
15:01 GMT -4**

Thank goodness _that's_ over.

When Dubbilex tried to answer questions and failed due to everyone else trying shout _their_ questions over everyone else, I worked out why Lex wanted me on hand. One quick aura of silence later and things became a great deal more orderly. Well, in effect. They kept on shouting but only the person with the 'Player 1 Select' construct around them could be heard by anyone else. Dubbilex could easily handle that, though I imagine that most of the journalists missed his first few answers due to trying to listen with their mouths.

I don't think that Ms Lane believed Lex's claim not to have known about what was happening in Cadmus for a moment but she has too much sense to just blurt out an accusation. Nonetheless, she did ask Dubbilex about his origins and interactions with Cadmus staff to date. I already knew that he was only five years old but I hadn't really considered what that would mean for age related legislation. The age of consent isn't really an issue for a species that can't reproduce sexually but ordinarily he wouldn't be able to vote in elections for another thirteen years. The oldest Genomorphs in existence are the small number of surviving G-Prometheans, the original batch Cadmus produced to make sure that their processes worked before moving on to more 'useful' varieties. I was introduced to one last week and they look like broader and shorter G-Elves. None of them are over fifteen and they aren't likely to make it to twenty. Their longevity wasn't really a concern at the time.

Red Tornado made a brief speech about his perspective on Human society. I find it hard to believe that he hasn't got better at delivering speeches than that. Lex had to nudge him into giving specific anecdotes about his early and somewhat confusing interactions with humanity at large. My own talk was far shorter, focusing on the need for a rapid change in the law to reflect what none of us in the room doubted; that these were intelligent beings in need of recognition.

Neither Dubbilex nor Lex made any mention either of their Kryptonian research or of Mister Harper, save as 'caretaker management'. Once the initial round of questioning was over Dubbilex brought out the other Genomorphs. That was where things got a bit complicated. They could deal with a Human equivalent being wanting legal recognition but coping with a gestalt lifeform requires such a radically different approach that the same sort of connection just wasn't there.

Spotting that the audience were drifting, Lex stepped in and used the opportunity to extol the technical skills of the Cadmus personnel responsible. The G-Troll lifted a few weights, the G-Elf did a short acrobatic performance and the G-Dwarf did some sketching. Two different sketches at once to be precise. I hadn't thought about their niche when Kon and I went in to find Match but it turns out that they can handle multiple sources of data input and output. And Harper was having them wash dishes.

When they were established in the audience's minds as 'not threatening' Dubbilex offered to have the G-Gnome enable telepathic communication between volunteers. I think Lex had plants who were primed to volunteer themselves if no one else did, but Mister Olsen got to his feet almost immediately. That demonstration wasn't all that audience friendly as only the participants and myself could hear what they were saying but it seemed like the participants enjoyed it.

I _still_ don't know where the original genetic samples came from. No one asked, presumably because they were assuming that Cadmus created them ex nihilo. I could try asking Dubbilex, see if they've picked up anything from the minds of Cadmus' original researchers? I have to assume that Lex knows. Could I just ask him? And I'm back to how far I'm prepared to work with him.

After that, a buffet lunch and mingling with the journalists. A few wits thought to ask for my Christmas Cake recipe and commiserated me on the Guinness Book of Records refusing to recognise it. I think their excuse was something to do with the large scale theft involved. Not like I've been prosecuted… Another question that got some attention was one concerning the possibility of me joining the Justice League. In the end I just gave a brush-off non-answer about how if they couldn't manage with three Lanterns a fourth wouldn't help much either, but I thought it was worth thinking about. I know I can fight as well -if not better- than the local Greenies. My existence isn't a secret, I don't have a life outside.. **this** that could be disrupted by membership. If it wasn't for the Nabu thing, is it something I'd actually do?

I'm on good terms with several members and not on really bad terms with any of them. They aren't _my_ team, but the League only really get together as a group for major events and I don't think I'd be significantly less effective around them. On the other hand, what would I gain by it? Control? I'm planning to put Vril Dox in charge of my Corps, control isn't my thing. I'd already be turning up to major events anyway, already have access to most information and resources… I'm sure Alan would like it if I did, but otherwise.. I'm not.. seeing the draw.

I step aside as a large party of Zatanna's fellow students walk down the pavement. She should be out of school soon and John's managed to track down Mister Ondaatie for us. For a man who never leaves the city he can be surprisingly elusive when he wants to be. Probably still irritated about John's mishandling of the The Beast situation. My plans for our final confrontation with Nabu are still somewhat nebulous, but it would be **very** convenient to face him down somewhere we knew he couldn't flee from. If Mister Ondaatie's willing to help with that, great. If not, I'll need to either start looking for somewhere else or come up with another methodology. Keeping him in one place would also give us the best chance for a negotiated resolution-.

I spot Zatanna and a small group of her school friends walking down the pavement from the school's main entrance. I don't really… I haven't had anything to do with them. She has talked about them, but it's… The things we do together are mostly things we have to keep secret. She told me that she hasn't told them much more than the Justice League's official statement on her father's sudden absence from the public eye. Let's see… Kayla, Sarah and Alexis? I think?

I'm wearing a woolly grey roll neck jumper to cover my neck tattoos and black loose-fitting trousers. Neither have any orange in them. In deference to the setting I'm also wearing glasses for the first time since I got here and I've combed my hair slightly differently, which I assume is the reason why no-one in the city I visited with a giant cake resting on a flying ice fortress can recognise me.

"…no real chance of Webster…"

I come to a halt just outside the gates. Most parents collecting children from my old Primary School used to wait just inside the gates while most children attending my secondary school either walked home or got on one of the three double decker busses that were laid on for us. There are parents around for the youngest children but for the most part they appear to be lining up to board the yellow busses at pavement just outside the school.

"…of feeling at the time. Even if they captured DC -and I don't think they _could_…"

The four of them are rather focused on their own conversation. Something they're working on in class? I haven't really talked to Zatanna about that sort of thing in any detail. Probably should…

"…didn't have enough recognition-."

"I'm sorry to interrupt."

"-to even _try_ to-"

"Zatanna?"

They stop, conversation dead. Kayla -I think- give me a look of mild indignation. "And who exactly are-?"

"Paul?" Zatanna recovers from her surprise quickly. "Why are you..?"

"I finally managed to get hold of that chap in London we wanted to speak to."

Probably-Alexis looks me over with a smirk and then turns to Zatanna. "Is this the guy you've been-?"

"Yes! Paul's been, ah, a he's a friend." She nods. "Yes."

"The tattoo guy?" I pull back my left sleeve slightly and let her have a look. "O_oh_. They really go all over..?"

"Most of my body, yes. Zatanna, I can do this myself if you're.. busy. I just thought-."

"Right, yes, no, this is…" She turns back to her friends. "I'm really sorry, but I need-."

"It's _fine_." Sarah giggles as Zatanna starts to blush. "You need us to tell your dad you're studying with us?"

I shake my head. "We're not-"

"No!"

"-romantically involved."

Alexis gives me a look of total incredulity. "Uh-huh. And that's why you're spending every free moment together."

I try meeting Zatanna's eyes but she looks away. "It's really more of a professional development thing."

"So what you're saying is: dating you is good for her _career_?"

"To reiterate: not dating."

"And the _friendly_ massages?"

I hesitate. I suppose.. those.. from an outsider point of view could seem a bit…"I fear this conversation's rather got away from me. Zatanna-?"

Mantling her face with her right hand she grabs my arm with her left. "Stel tsuj teg tuo fo ereh won."

**21st January  
19:12 GMT**

We appear a few streets away from the Northampton Arms and quickly walk around a corner. I've discovered that unless there's some sort of lightshow accompanying it, most people tend to ignore teleportation. They've all got their own stuff going on, so if you make even a basic effort to fade into the crowd they'll usually assume that they just missed spotting you the first time. That's far more likely than the idea that you used a power ring to travel faster than light from the other side of the Atlantic, right? For those who do spot it, getting out of their line of sight is usually enough. Though the CCTV cameras I can see do appear to be paying us particular attention.

Zatanna.. isn't looking at me. I suppose that having me turn up like that.. and having her friends assume that we're dating was fairly awkward. And I know that she loves me, a perfectly natural result of her need and my freely offered support. And probably more than a little physical attraction. I mean, I designed this body. I know it looks good. But I'm really more filling an 'in loco paternis patris' role than a boyfriend thing. I was.. clear at New Year, wasn't I?

"… How.. was.. school..?"

"Good." She doesn't expand. "How did the thing with Lex Luthor go?"

"G-. I think it went well. He might have been a bit heavy handed with the slavery line, but I suppose that simple messages transmit better than complex ones. The Genomorphs themselves were reasonably well received."

"We've been.. studying the build up to the Civil War. I don't think any of the factors which made people support slavery apply now. Genomorphs were used as forced labor in Cadmus but not anywhere else. There's no body of people who are used to it, no major industry that depends on it and I doubt any politicians would be prepared to stand on a pro-slavery platform now."

"As far as I know, the only people working on artificial biological lifeforms in the United States are Cadmus and Uncorporation. Neither of them would have a problem with expanding the thirteenth amendment to unambiguously cover non-Humans. The only problem will be with AIs. That, and working out _how_ to integrate them."

"Why would AIs be a problem?" She glances at me as we stop at a pelican crossing. Looks like she's calmed down a bit. "I don't think anyone could seriously doubt that Red Tornado is a person."

"No, they wouldn't. He's unambiguously Human-equivalent. The problem would come from technology companies working on intelligent systems, where they make something and it isn't clear how clever it is. Or worse, it they make something that looks like it _might_ be intelligent and either wipe it or add a load of restrictions to stop it developing. And _then_ there's the problem of who owns Genomorph genetic data."

She frowns. "They'd own it themselves, wouldn't they?"

"At the moment, lots of companies have patents on genetic sequences, even ones that are naturally occurring. There have been a lot of legal challenges… The American Supreme Court might end up hearing a case eventually, but even so, Genomorphs are the product of research. And they can't reproduce naturally. If Cadmus-" The lights change and we start across the road. "-or a company like Cadmus owned the genetic data of an intelligent creature, they could hold them in bondage by controlling their access to it. Or decide to genocide them."

"Does that apply to Humans?"

"Oooh, yes. There's some.. very stupid and thoughtless law relating to genetics out there."

"Are you saying.. if a person has a gene, and a company copyrights it… That company owns that gene in that person's body?"

"They might. Maybe. I can't see a court ever enforcing that… I mean, can you see a judge daring to ban.. 'natural transmission'? But if any company ever gets heavily into artificial genes they'd probably _try_. Lex and I might end up having to fight against the ability of companies to patent genes at all." I hesitate as the Northampton Arms comes into sight. "Um… About your friends…"

"Oh, just…" She glances out into the road. "Just ignore them. I told them we weren't dating."

"Okay."

"I haven't told them about.. what really happened to Dad, but it's pretty obvious that there's something wrong. Making jokes about the hot English guy I'm hanging out with-"

"Themysciran."

"-is just them trying to help." I nod, and pull open the pub's door for her. "Thank you." She walks in and I follow her. John's sitting across from the door at the same table we occupied during our heart to heart eleven days ago and he looks up as we enter. There's a hardhat on the table, and sitting across from John is a middle aged black man wearing full underground maintenance gear. Ken 'Map' Ondaatie. Probably the most powerful shaman in the country and a virtual god within London itself.

And I'm going to get him fired from a job he loves by making trains obsolete.

…

Maybe I should have thought about that a bit more?

That realisation caused me to slow down, allowing Zatanna to pull ahead. She walks over to the table, stops and gives a short bow. "Mister Ondaatie, thank you for agreeing to speak with me."

"Bowing? John, how did a polite girl like this get involved with the likes of you?" Zatanna hesitates, not quite sure what to do next. Mister Ondaatie points to the space next to John with his left hand. "And you by the door. I've been watching you since you arrived."

How did-? The cameras. If he was just directly seeing the pictures they transmitted, my wards wouldn't… I approach the table, recalling exactly how many cameras that was. Magic multiprocessing? Or maybe he just set them to track Zatanna? Would it be worth suggesting that _she_ get tattoos..? No, I'm fairly sure several people would object to that, no matter how functional they were. Mister Ondaatie looks around as I come up to the table. "What's this I hear about you talking to Boris about transportation?"

I wince inwardly. "We offered him first dibs on a portal network. And before you start complaining, you're perfectly capable of enhancing the tube so no one needs to use them."

"Not a great way to go about asking for a favour." John and Zatanna shuffle along and I sit down on the end of the seat opposite Mister Ondaatie.

"No, but I was part of the group that stopped the plant attack back in October." He nods, picks up his pint and takes a drink."John told you what we want?"

"You want me to help you ambush a superhero."

Zatanna's face hardens. "A super**hero** wouldn't hold my father hostage."

"Mister Ondaatie, this is the most important thing happening in my life. What do you want in exchange? If you really want the tube thing spiked, I'll talk Sephtian into using a different city."

"I prefer to keep my tube work and magic work separate." He looks thoughtful. "I know that you're telling the truth about Fate. I felt Giovanni Zatara trapped inside him when he came looking for John while we dealt with The Beast." He looks at Zatanna. "Nabu is bound to Order. Even if he came to London, I wouldn't be able to free your father."

She nods. "We know. We just need you to stop him leaving. Stop him teleporting and.. flying away from us really fast."

"Are you planning to kill him?"

"We will have plans _for_ killing him, but we'd prefer not to. We _can_ keep him imprisoned if we have to. I'd rather come to terms."

"But you want to be able to force him to see things your way." Zatanna and I both nod. "Risky, for me. He could do a lot of damage to my city, saying nothing of what he could do to me directly if he found me." He leans back in his seat, thinking things over. "There is… Something you could do for me. An old mess of John's that needs to be tidied up. Do that for me and for London…" He nods. "And we'll help you."

"Okay. What sort of mess?"

"The Damnation Army."

**21st January  
19:18 GMT**

John frowns. "What, you mean that nutter who tried to murder Gemma? And that football hooligan mashup? Don't think either of _them_ are in any position-."

Mister Ondaatie shakes his head. "No, John. Nergal's victims were many." He reaches into the pocket of his overalls and pulls out a map. Looks like… Utilities. Sewers, electrical cables, water pipes and storm drains.

"And? Their boss is _gone_. Saw him get burned to death by Angels meself."

Mister Ondaatie chuckles. "Demons are harder to kill than that, John. I'm surprised at you."

John exhales. "Too much to hope Angels would do something that actually _helped_ me. How'd they f-." Half second glance at Zatanna. "Mess that one up?"

"You took his spirit to the borders of heaven. His body was taken by Richard Simpson. Maybe he left a little bit of himself somewhere so that he could regrow?"

"How would you know, anyway?"

"If he was really gone, this-" He taps his right forefinger on the map. "-wouldn't still be here. A little patch of hell underneath my city."

"Okay. Any idea what he's got down there?"

John thinks for a moment. "Not Nergal himself. Probably not any other Demons either, else they'd have taken charge and started attacking things. Could be.. cultists… People he's messed about with his magic. Maybe some nasty trap spells, but Nergal didn't really bother with that sort of thing."

Zatanna nods. "He'd have to have something there keeping the link to Hell going. If we destroyed _that_, everything that was affected by Nergal's magic would either be pulled back in or.. die."

"Or we could just blitz them." I shrug. "I'm a bit low on Mageslayers but don't have a problem assimilating Demons."

"No." Mister Ondaatie shakes his head. "Anything that stirs them up risks drawing more attention from Hell and there are more than enough people-" He looks straight at John. "-doing deals with Demons here already."

John looks not even slightly guilty. "If you can't take a little heat…"

"So.. if we shut the portal down, you'll let us fight Nabu here?"

"Yes." He takes another sip. "That's it."

"Just so we're clear; while I don't want to kill him, it might come to that. And I can't promise that Order won't hold you responsible."

He looks towards the wall, his eyes unfocusing. "Did you know people from all but three of the world's countries live in London?"

"I think I remember hearing that on a radio program."

"People from Europe, people following trade routes from all parts. People like my parents, coming here from the colonies after the War. Little bit of everything if you know where to look." He nods to himself. "Messy and vital. Alive and chaotic." He turns back to me. "Don't worry about Order coming after me. The same energies that will stop Nabu will stop any of the others sticking their noses in."

"When do you want this done?"

"No time like the present." He gets up, picking up his helmet as he does so.

I get to my feet as well. "Alright then. Lead on, MacDuff."

I hold out my right hand to help Zatanna up. "Actually, the line is 'Lay on, MacDuff, and damned be him who first cries 'Hold! enough!'."

"We did 'Twelfth Night' and 'Romeo and Juliet' at my school. I've actually never read MacBeth."

John levers himself off the seat and pulls out a packet of cigarettes. "Suppose if we're fighting Demons then gettin' damned is always a possibility."

"Wasn't the play a complete character assassination of MacBeth because Shakespeare wanted to suck up to King James?"

Zatanna nods. "Probably. Or it might just have been that he only had access to one historical record and made a story based around it."

We follow Mister Ondaatie out of the door. Then he walks to the edge of the pavement and holds out his left arm. Yeah, right. Like there are going to be-. A taxi pulls up next to him. Right, Shaman of London. He gets in the front and I open the rear door for John and Zatanna. Mister Ondaatie must _know_ I could get us there near instantaneously, right? Maybe he just prefers to use his own methods?

While John's here… "John, I've got a… A moral problem I was hoping you could help me with."

"Must be desperate. Isn't that Wonder Woman's job?"

"It.. probably should be. But since Nabu…"

"Alright. What is it?"

"There's a company in the United States called 'Cadmus Labs'. They made an intelligent artificial species and I'm working with a man named Lex Luthor to get that species legal recognition."

"Okay?"

"Lex Luthor is almost certainly a member of the Light. The Light are a group of supervillains who claim to be trying to advance the Human species by… Well, that's not very clear. I was and **am** trying to cooperate with him to encourage him to do that in less villany ways. I know he's committed crimes, but.. if I can make his impact a net positive…"

"That's your thing. So what's the problem?"

I try looking out of the windows, but the scenery around us ripples and shifts disturbingly. "The problem is that Klarion is **also** a member of the Light."

"The Chaos Lord from Roanoke an' the Watchtower."

"Right. The Light had someone steal the piece of Starro they used to mind control the League during the Roanoke incident. That means foreknowledge. I don't know.. exactly what they knew. Heck, Klarion isn't exactly reliable. Maybe he was doing that on his own? My problem is... I'll tolerate a lot, but I'm not prepared to work with someone who gave the nod to a plan which would kill hundreds of thousands of children."

Zatanna leans around his shoulder. "I'm glad to hear it."

John looks puzzled. "I thought the whole point of bein' a legitimate superhero was so you could arrest people and that."

"The Justice League will take the word of someone under the influence of the Lasso of Truth as gospel. Courts don't." I sigh."And anyway, it's not his membership of the organisation, it's how much control he had, whether he knew in advance what Klarion was going to do."

John thinks for a moment. "Telepathy?"

"He'd notice, and there's ways to resist. We could overpower him, but he maintains the appearance of an upstanding citizen. Hard to justify. And we wouldn't be able to use it in court. And… I'd ideally _like_ to keep working with him."

"So you need more information?"

"Couldn't you just hack his servers?"

"Already done, normal and secure. And since I didn't find records of things I know he's done, there must be other servers I _haven't_ found. The Light know scry wards block my scans and Lex is used to needing to protect his stuff from Kal-El and Batman. Adding a few drawings with a circuit pen wouldn't have been a big deal."

The taxi comes to a stop. I look in the rear view mirror and see that the driver's eyes are somewhat glazed as Mister Ondaatie pays him. Zatanna opens her door and gets out. John looks out the front windscreen for a moment, then shuts the door behind her. "If he _did_ know, and you get proof, what would you do?"

"Data I stole from his servers probably wouldn't be admissible in court." Unless I was a member of the Justice League and was responding to an attack. Huh, there's the reason to join. "But if I knew to **my** satisfaction, I'd kill him and as many of his co-conspirators as I could find. Then, release the data to the public. It's the only appropriate response."

"You _did_ say you'd be alright working with Klarion. Back when the Nabu thing-."

"In the short term while we dealt with Nabu, yes. It's not like that would make the people Klarion killed _more_ dead. But we'd be on each other again as soon as Nabu was out of the picture, and I'd have called it off if he looked like doing anything like that while we were working on the problem."

"'course, if you use your ring on Klarion, you could find out from _him_."

True… I shake my head. "Let's not keep Mister Ondaatie waiting."

**21st January  
19:31 GMT**

"I don't know **what** the miserable sod did to _this_ one."

My railgun turret tracks another Hellzombie and pulverises the right half of its chest with a tungsten round, smashing it to the floor. Then it starts to push itself up. "They're getting tougher." Another shot annihilates its head.

"The closer we get t' the main portal-."

"John, focus please!"

"Assimilation twelve per-. Assimilation thirt-. Assimilation nine percent complete."

Lost cause _there_. The Hellzombie I'm holding in a draconic talon near the edge of the pumping station flails around as it tries to get a grip on the construct pinning it. In a grapple those things _can_ break my constructs. The first few we ran into just lay in the tunnel, weakly trying to reach for us as we passed them by. The next group were like classical shambling zombies, aside from having intact skin and the strange yellow glow in their eyes. I suggested that we ignore them as well until the barrier I was pushing them back with went all 'construct lost' on me. At this rate I'm going to have to start cranking out the heavy constructs, and I'm not eager to find out what comes through the portal to see what all the noise is about.

Speaking of which… "More incoming. Major wave. Zatanna?"

The new wave have eyes that glow brightly and are about as strong as Kon was pre-enhancement. While the earlier types looked more or less as they did when Nergal killed them these new ones are altered. Distended jaws full of razor sharp teeth are common, as are clawed fingers and toes. Luckily, no daemonic speed yet.

"Sretaw wolf-" Water streams underneath me and gathers next to her as I have the claw toss the Hellzombie it's holding into its brethren. "-dna hsup meht kcab!"

I'm briefly underwater as the wave surges past me. In that instant the water appears to stretch out for miles around, filled with shrivelled, crab eaten corpses which nonetheless continue to weakly struggle against the chains that bind them to the riverbed. I make fleeting eye to eye socket contact with the closest as it fruitlessly reaches for the tauntingly close surface with unfleshed arms.

Then the hellish waters have passed, taking the vision with them. Two Hellzombies managed to anchor themselves into the tunnel brickwork and I swiftly target them for-.

"Ah! Fucking..!" John staggers back from the glyphs inscribed on the brickwork as they smoke and burn, the base of his thumb in his mouth. A second later he yanks it out, still blackened and smouldering. "Zatanna!"

"Lufelab scigam wolf yawa!" The smouldering stops.

Ring, heal. The wound disappears.

"_**Fuck**_ me." John slumps to the ground amongst the skull braziers. "How many more of these friggin' things _are_ there?"

Ring, phone. "Mister Ondaatie, one more down. What's that done to the area?"

"Nicely done. It's shrinking again. I'll come up behind you and deal with any of Nergal's foot soldiers you missed."

If it's shrinking… I create a construct of the map he showed us. I know Mister Ondaatie's location, so… Not all that much space _left_.

"What _was_ that?" Zatanna looks at John as he tries massaging some life back into his hand.

"The people in the water?" She nods. "The dead and damned. Maybe they drowned, maybe they just really hated water." He shrugs and walks to the edge of the platform. "So now they get to spend eternity in the place they hate most of all."

"Can't we do something for them?"

"Have to talk to God about _that_."

"Ready to move?"

Zatanna stretches her right shoulder. "I think I should ask Mister Gambi to add some more padding to this armor." I raise my eyebrows and she nods. "I'm good."

John nods. "Let's get this over with."

I float them both off the ground and with the railgun turret construct taking the lead we fly down the tunnel towards what I _hope_ is the epicentre. "Zatanna, have you given any thought to learning how to use conventional firearms?"

"Dad doesn't like guns."

"Why not? I mean, I can understand not wanting them to be generally available, but if you're working in a business that pretty much always involves violent confrontation it seems like a sensible thing to have."

"Talking backwards doesn't provoke people in the way that waving a gun at them does."

"I'm not saying 'always go for the gun', I'm just saying it's a useful tool that is _sometimes_ the correct choice. If I hadn't had my pistol with me on Roanoke then Klarion would have killed me."

The turret turns upwards and puts three rounds through a Hellzombie that was hiding in a tube up to the surface. It gets cut clean in half with most of its torso reduced to paste and both parts fall to the ground. Then the top half pushes itself upright, looks around and starts dragging itself towards the bottom half. I hold out my right hand and focus my mind on the idea of **destruction**, of how hideously _wrong_ such an entity is. An orange beam lances out from the ring and vaporises it. Don't really think there's anything about Hellzombies the world particularly needs.

The tunnel curves around ahead of us and I can hear… _something_. The Hellzombies Zatanna flushed down here a few moments ago are just starting to get themselves reorganised. They'd have done it quicker but it looks like they've lost the ability to cooperate with one another. Another series of high-pitched hums as the gun takes the time to headshot each of them. They'll recover, but without sensory organs they aren't much of a threat.

"Dna _yats_ nwod."

"Nearly there." I cut through a grate covering the entrance to the hellgate. The chamber on the far side is about twelve metres across and eight deep, with a shore occupied by Hellzombies on the far side. Halfway up the wall to our right is what looks like a surprisingly vital thorn bush. The portal itself is surrounded both here and in hell by a series of skull braziers-.

One of the Hellzombies leaps at us. The railgun turret fires twice, hitting thigh and stomach and knocking it out of the air and sending it hurtling into the wall. It slides down into the shallow water, then clambers to its feet. "John, we're going to need that portal down a bit quick."

"Going to have to clean _that_ mob off first."

That mob is giving us their full attention. "Rings, total charge?"

"One hundred seventy four percent remaining." / "One hundred seventy four percent remaining."

I share momentary eye contract with Zatanna and we both raise our hands. "Destruction." Thick beams of orange plough into the Hellzombie mob. I'm not going for kill shots here, just to damage them.

"Nruter ot ecnehw ey emac!" The hell portal shudders and buckles as an ethereal wind tries to call the restless souls of Nergal's damned home. They try to dig in, grabbing at the walls, the floor and each other until an orange beam finds them and forces them loose. Once we have space enough for landing I drop down and create another turret for sentry duty.

"One hundred fifty percent remaining."

The land beyond the portal resembles the ash wastes of Morrowind, decorated only by the remains of the Hellzombies which Zatanna's spell has sent through. John touches down next and begins walking around the portal, closely examining it's edges.

A moment later the ethereal wind cuts out and Zatanna bends over, panting. Only three more Hellzombies on this side and a quick claw construct is easily able to throw them through. Taking a slight risk I extend a filament through the gate and deposit concrete blocks from subspace to block it off.

And then we hear the moaning.

**21st January  
19:35 GMT**

I've heard moans before. On the bridge on Gotham there weren't many. The children either cried as loudly as they could or were drowned out by those who did. But at other times, such as during the disaster recovery work later when we dug out those on the verge of death who'd lost the strength to cry out… There were moans then. Victim recovery, picking up those who were injured but wanted me to pick up other people first and tried to bite down on their own pain. Or from zombies on television whenever we let Wallace pick the film, an exhalation with no mind to guide it.

This moan doesn't sound like any of them. I hear black, despair and nullity. I take a quick look around but aside from John and Zatanna empathic vision doesn't show me anything. The noise got John's- "John, get on with it."

"Right, right." He cups his hands around the closest of the braziers, bows his head slightly and starts muttering something.

Magic. With all this hell magic around… Ring, check my Spell Eater. Getting hot yet?

Effect of ambient magic minimal.

Good to know. I fire off a series of filaments into the water but all they find is concrete, sludge and a few old unanimated bones. I subspace those to be passed to the police later. Roof's solid concrete-.

Zatanna looks up at the wall. "It's coming from the bush."

I fly up into the air, careful to keep my distance. There's nearly no light here so I've got no idea how it's staying this vital. Magic? Can't scan through the outer leaves at all. Forwards go the probing constructs, pushing against the outer layer of thorny branches. The moaning increases slightly in volume. Am I hurting the plant? I haven't.. broken anything… I stop the probes and have them send out filaments instead. What am I looking a-?

Oh no. There's a woman… No, a Dryad in there. She's curled up in a foetal position and the thorns are radiating off her back and her head. Her torso and head are intact but it looks like her legs have been snapped off below the knees. Where shins and feet should be are smaller branches which terminate in the roots holding her to the wall. Her arms are pulled tightly to her chest, hands gone with a few weak sprouts radiating out in all directions in their place. Her eyes are mostly closed, flickering slightly as her damaged mind tries to reject the reality of her suffering. Cuts around her neck, jaw and face look like.. someone stuck their fingertips into her.

"Heavily injured and traumatised Dryad. Doesn't look like she's been demonised like the others. I know sod all about the medical care of supernatural crea-. People. J-."

There's a heavy bang from the concrete wall. Odd. If the Hellzombies had the intelligence to attack visual walls they could have escaped by now. On the other hand I'm sure hell has plenty of horrible things dwelling therein. Perhaps they can smell a way out? John's eyes are fixed on the gate as the brazier he's next to changes from red to blue flame. "Where're the friggin' Alexins when you actually need them. Chalice would _love_ this."

Zatanna's watching the gate too, with the occasional glance upward at me. "Do you.. know what's on the other side?"

John strides over to the next brazier. "More'n those zombie things, that's for sure. Try finding out anything else and I'm telling it I'm here."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Yer dad wanted to keep you safe from Demons. Which is great.. in theory. Then, when you need to know about them-." The fire from the second brazier shoots outwards, pooling around his left hand. "-you realise you don't know a soddin' thing." He looks up. "Oi, Paul, any chance you can make me a hole in that wall then close it right after?"

"Yeees, I can take out a block. Chest height in the middle good enough for you?"

"That'll do. Thing is, Zatanna, I've been trying to defuse these things…" He winces. "_Agh_. When what I _think_ we need-" Fire from the other two braziers drifts through the air to float around his left hand and beneath the blaze I can just about make out the circle and triangle and squiggles of his tattoo. "-is a controlled explosion." The sleeve of his coat starts to smoulder as he hurries towards the wall. "Ready?"

"On 'go'. Three, two, one, go!"

The brick disappears and we get a momentary vision of a thing with John's face and glowing red holes where it's eyes should be grinning at us through the hole. "Hello, John."

"Fiat Lux!" Flame shoots from John's outstretched hand and his look-alike sidesteps the fiery blast which swiftly eats its way through the Hellzombie horde.

As soon as the flame passes it by it shoots its hand through the gap and grabs John's wrist! "How's life treating y-?"

"Close it!" John pulls back, slamming his attacker's forearm as hard against the concrete as he can! "Fucking close it fucking right fucking now!"

"Tel og fo ym dneirf!"

The hell creature's hand opens immediately. It looks.. surprised. "Zatanna? Is that-?"

I shove the block back in the hole and the rest of his sentence is cut off. Great. The Demon Constantine; all of John's skill and a right niece-raping bastard to boot.

"John, who was that?"

He shakes his head, looking a little guilty. "Don't worry about it." He checks the now dead braziers. "Alright. With those out-" There's a brief flicker of light from the furthest one. "-the connection shouldn't-." All three dead braziers flame back into life and the blue one starts crackling. "Oh fuck right off. How is he-?" John sits down cross legged and plants his hands palms down on the ground. "The link should have died, _why_ is it still…"

There's another loud bang as something hits the concrete. The Demon should only be as strong as John himself is… Maybe a little bit more given its demonic nature. It shouldn't be concrete punching strong. Other friends? If the Demon's anything like it's progenitor it will have tried to make alliances…

John's head comes up. "Sympathetic resonance. The Dryad's still connected to the Green. He's using _that_ to keep the gate where it should be."

"I can fly her out of here."

"Won't be enough. Nergal's going to have marked her good and proper. He could use any of the zombies-"

"What, then?"

He looks up at me with cold dead eyes. Oh. Right. A Constantine job. Surprised it didn't come to this sort of thing earlier.

Zatanna doesn't get it. "What? What are we supposed to do?"

"Destroy the Dryad, break the link." Her eyes widen in horror. "Fortunate for us all that I'm not John Constantine, really. Can you hold them off for about twenty seconds?"

She turns away and presses her hands against the wall. "Dog sselb siht etercnoc!"

"Aaaaaaagggh! FuuuuCK!"

I fly at full speed back out of the room, frantically trying to plot-! There! Transition. I appear in the grove on top of Mount Justice, construct blade slicing one of Swamp Thing's fruits from one of the trees we grew from his seeds. Transition, fly fast as I can back into the room, up to the bush. Smoothie maker construct, blend the fruit, construct tube through the bush, into her mouth and down her throat, _pump_. I take a gulp of it for myself as well. Is that.. oregano? I know some of Swamp Thing's fruits induce psychedelic states but I'm sort of hoping that between the Dryad getting most of it and the Ophidian's influence that-.

The Dryad's eyes shoot open and she bites through the feeding tube construct. She coughs, flails and uncurls. Her thick outer bark bulges outwards, cracks and falls off, revealing healthy new growth beneath. The largest branch at each knee expands as the others wither, restoring her legs. Roots break off and she falls to the ground, still coughing, choking and finally vomiting forth a stream of black sludge. She gets a second's respite to push up to all fours and then she's heaving again, bile pouring across the rock and into the water.

"Paul!" John's on his feet. "That stuff she's chucking up, that's prime essence of Nergal!"

"Got it." I gently stick a bucket construct under her head and start annihilating all of what she's already produced. The smashing against the concrete is continuous now, but with a little luck that won't be enough. Between convulsions she manages to look up at me for a moment then her face goes back down as she coughs up the last of it. I pull the bucket away and eliminate the rest of it.

"Their marker's gone!" John heaves the blue brazier out of the ground. "Zatanna! Put out the other ones!"

"Semalf eid yb ym dnammoc!"

The ruddy red flames poof out one by one as John runs his brazier between them, causing the blue flame to ignite each one in turn. Then he slams it back down in its original position. "There! No link and I **know** you don't have the power for this. Close you bastard thing,_**close**_!

From the wall where the Dryad fell vines sprout and then shoot around the walls of the room, spreading, dividing and growing around one another until the whole place is covered. Zatanna has to use her flight belt to get above them and John is rudely tossed aside. Lastly the vines form and arch around the gate and grow to cover it from both sides as Swamp Thing grows a face directly above it. Large glowing red eyes look down at John and then **hard** at me.

"I didn't give him any!"

If his face was mobile enough to scowl I think he'd be scowling at me. **"The breech is.. sealed. Constantine can.. secure it.. against further intrusion."**

The Dryad sees who he is, then kneels before him "Great Champion, thank you."

He looks down at her and his expression appears to soften slightly. **"There is no.. need to abase yourself.. before me, Green Sister."** She looks up as he turns his attention to me again. **"You will take.. her to a place of.. safety."**

It wasn't a question but I nod anyway. His eyes go out as the Dryad looks around nervously at us. "Miss?" I drop down to land in front of her but outside her personal space. "How does a trip to Themyscira sound?"

**21st January  
22:58 GMT +3**

Zatanna looks around uncomfortably as we enter the woodland in the middle of the island of Themyscira. "Are you sure we're allowed to be here?"

"It's perfectly alright for me to bring guests. I checked with Queen Hippolyta."

Euanthe hurries over to a nearby pine tree and hugs the trunk, pressing her face against it. Poor woman hasn't said much since Swamp Thing left. She seems to understand what we're saying well enough and Zatanna tells me that she's speaking English, but beyond that? She's muttered assent to my suggestion of coming here and muttered her name when I asked. We had to walk out the slow way. I offered to fly her out but she became so obviously terrified that I dropped the idea.

"Doooes.. that include…" She looks at John's cigarette.

In addition to the four blue-burning braziers I left a few ring-fabricated sun globes in the portal chamber. John was fairly clear that if Swamp Thing says that a hole is sealed then it's **sealed** and I thought it might be nice to keep the plant growth Swamp Thing caused alive if at all possible. Mister Ondaatie was pleased with what we'd accomplished and says that he'll keep his word about cooperating to remove Nabu. One worry down.

"Smoking wasn't specifically mentioned. They've never had tobacco here."

John turns back to us. "Oh yeah? Maybe I should set up shop here."

"You wouldn't be able to find your way through the wards without me. But please don't try?"

"No, I meant…" Oh, she was looking at _John_. "Other men."

"I wasn't told _not_ to."

John grins. "My kind of answer."

Euanthe pulls away from her tree, swaying slightly. "This… This way." She starts walking further into the forest. I think that's -yep- the way to Gaea's sacred grove. I follow behind her, matching her pace. There _are_ big mythological beasties in these woods but at the same time I'm not sure how much she needs us to be here. Would they attack her? How physically powerful _is_ she? She just got a major infusion of Green power and she certainly looks a lot healthier. And a good deal less thorny. She certainly doesn't seem to have any trouble navigating in the dark.

John follows a pace behind, careful to keep within the bubble of orange light I'm casting. "So. What's next on the agenda?"

"For now? Nothing. Sephtian needs time to work through some of his current projects, work out how to integrate his new transmuted substances. The next thing I want is some sort of anti-order version of the Ace. Or maybe some sort of super fast magic draining artefact."

Zatanna comes up alongside me. "What about the Star Sapphire?"

"How are you feeling now?"

"A bit drained." She smiles at me. "I don't usually get that sort of work out after school."

"You fought Hellzombies and-."

"Is _that_ what they were?"

"Um. That's what I was calling them in my head. John?"

"I don't bother naming every little thing hell chucks up. Hellzombies." He thinks for a moment. "Sure, why not. Meaning's pretty clear and it lets you tell yourself that they're not really _people_-."

Zatanna's face drops. "Oh God. Those were people?"

"Once." Euanthe stops ahead of us and with visible reluctance turns around to face our direction. She keeps her eyes down."Once they were. Some may even have been good people. Then…" She shudders. "N-. **Nergal**. He reached into them and pulled all of the goodness out. He replaced it with the stuff of Tartarus." She shudders again before turning away. "They were not people."

The three of us stay silent for a moment but it looks like that's all she has to say. "Right… Well, given all the stuff Sephtian has on his plate at the moment, it might be best if you could try accessing the Sapphire's power with magic directly. John?"

"What sort of power is it?"

"Crystallised love."

"_Love_?"

"Love is a very powerful force. Even more so when it's focused into a coherent beam of destruction."

"Oh, I won't argue about _that_." He exhales a puff of smoke. "Few things we could try. Usually it'd be… Over eighteen stuff…"

"Um." Zatanna's eyes flick to me and then off to the side.

"But there's siphons an' that. I'll flick through a few books, see what I can come up with." He chuckles. "Girl usin' magic powered by an alien love crystal."

"It really is straight out of a Japanese cartoon."

"What are you two talking about?"

"Sailor Moon." She shakes her head, not getting it. "You're a teenaged girl who uses magic _by shouting nonsense at people_. You go to a school that has a uniform policy so; jacket, short skirt."

"It's not _that_ short."

"Teekl's taken a liking to you so that's the talking cat covered… And now you're getting an alien magic love crystal."

"I've never watched Sailor M-."

"Mother!" Euanthe runs forwards at a sprint, straight into the arms of.. a tall Amazon woman in a green robe. How did I not see her? Do Amazons have ninjas? Empathic visions shows blue, green and white. Shape's a bit odd…

The older woman pulls Euanthe tightly against her chest. "Daughter. I am so very glad to see you." Wait. How do Dryads come into being? Was she sired on whoever this is by some sort of plant god? No, the ring says that Dryads are supposed to be Gaea's daughters, but that could just mean…

Oh, not _again_. I drop down onto my right knee. "Earth Mother."

She looks up from Euanthe. "Paul, John Constantine, Zatanna Zatara. Thank you for rescuing my daughter from that Demon and returning her to me."

"No problem, love."

"That's our job."

"And Paul, I am particularly obliged to you for the work you have done in my oceans and at my northern pole."

"I helped cause the harm. It was only right that I fix it." Originally I tried to get a consensus on how I should go about reglaciation from the relevant UN committee. After a month of waiting I decided to go ahead without them. The Ice Fortress has no problem going faster than the rate of ice loss but it isn't exactly _fast_ fast while on autopilot. Even with that in mind the north pole is appreciably larger than it was when I started, and with a larger area of the planet white and reflecting the sun's energy back out into space I've taken a significant step towards bringing climate change under control. "And if you hadn't witnessed my oath I don't think Diana would have taken me on. I wouldn't have.. got anywhere."

"Still, few would put the effort into righting the situation that you have. You have my thanks."

"You're welcome. Is.. there.. anything you particularly want dealt with next?"

"I am certain that you will find something to occupy your time. Come, child." She turns away, gently leading Euanthe deeper into the woods.

I wait until I can't see either of them before rising to my feet. "Right. Think that's enough weirdness for one day. Where do you two want dropping off?"

**21st January  
18:49 GMT -4**

Lois tapped her pen on her notebook, drawing invisible sketches as she read her annotations of Luthor's surprise announcement.

From time to time she would stretch her back and roll her shoulders, but her mind was firmly reviewing and dissecting the information that Luthor had seen fit to release.

_Follow the line..._

Red Tornado's unannounced presence had turned a seemingly low-key press release, the kind that would be buried all the way to the back of the newspaper, into something more.

Then he dropped the metaphorical bomb with his legal campaign to overturn the State v. Crane ruling, which had established that artificial beings like Red Tornado weren't people. And his first step was giving Doctor Mark Desmond's job to one of those unpeople.

Then orange constructs popped up and acted as crowd control, which meant a certain elusive Lantern was present as well. She hadn't recognized him until he took the floor to deliver his own brief speech.

A member of the Justice League and a superhero who worked for Wonder Woman at an event organized by Luthor? Showing their support for Luthor's campaign? Her cheek still hurt from all the times she had pinched it after the whole thing was over.

Lois put down pen and notebook on her desk for a moment and massaged her temples. There was another question she had to pose herself before she lost herself in her own musing.

_Who benefits?_

It wasn't her job. Lois's job was to write an article on Luthor's announcement, drop it on Perry's desk, wait for him to tell her whether it needed editing or not before it could be printed, edit said article and send it to have it printed on time.

She had done her job and it was near the end of her shift, so how she spent her time was her business and not her chief's as long as it didn't interfere with the others or didn't get anyone killed -or worse, disgraced and out of a job.

But there was something fishy going on, or her name wasn't Lois Joanne Lane.

_Who benefits?_

Normally Lois would answer: "Luthor, of course". He was a consummate business tycoon, cunning and manipulative to the bone; turning sticky situations to his advantage was a game he excelled at.

Back on her notebook, she snorted when she re-read Luthor's statement on how he hadn't known what was happening in Cadmus. Honestly, Luthor.

But that stumped her. Cadmus had been under fire for months, had its reputation torn to shreds, it was a PR black hole and was probably costing far more money than their research was worth at this point. It was _toast_.

There was no reason to throw even more money at a lost cause. His incoming campaign had some potential of netting good PR, but selling it to the public, especially when it was going to influence only a potentially limited pool of individuals, was going to cost him a lot.

_Who benefits?_

She frowned and drew another circle around Luthor's name, and then added an interrogative point next to it. The association with Cadmus was too risky to be completely Luthor's idea, and even if he wanted to get some footing in the Justice League through Red Tornado or Wonder Woman's Lantern...

Lois cancelled the half-written jotting. As if. The animosity between the Leaguers and Luthor was well-known; it would take more than trying to socialize with two superheroes. She lay back in her chair for a few moments, recalling as much as she could of the day in her mind.

_"It was brought to my attention only fairly recently..."_

There it was-

"Still on that, Lois?" her train of thoughts came crushing down at the sound of Bostwick's voice. She glared at him, but that had him smirking. "What's the matter? You went in expecting some third-rate business that would barely make the newspaper and got to see a preview of whatever Luthor's cooking for the future. You should be happy."

"There's something that doesn't add up. Do you know how annoying it is?"

"Couldn't tell, that Luthor chap has always been honest about his intentions," he said mockingly as he craned his head to steal some glances from her notes. "Remember to leave something for us, Lois."

"That attitude won't land you a big scoop!" Lois shouted, but he was already walking away. Bostwick waved back at her instead of answering verbally.

She turned her attention back at her notebook. Where was she- oh, where Luthor had claimed that "it had been brought to his attention". Who would bring...

Someone interested in seeing the ruling overturned? Luthor's little campaign would make more sense if there was a third party covering the costs. At least, it was more credible than Lex flipping Luthor deciding to take a risk playing good Samaritan.

Or there was a really, really _good _payoff that she had yet to pinpoint due to lack of critical information.

There was a Scoop somewhere here and she would find it. _Watch it Luthor, Lois Lane is on your case!_

She could do with some coffee, though.

**21st January  
16:23 GMT -4**

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

I walk across the empty training room and head in the direction of the kitchens. Darn it. Garth and Tula were going to get here mid morning and I wanted to be here. I told Kaldur I couldn't be sure… Quick scan-.

**Hey Paul.**

**Good afternoon, M'gann.**

I transition into the kitchen. All the lifers are here along with the new inmates. Garth and Tula are sitting at the table with Kaldur.. going through old mission reports. Wolf temporarily interrupts her exploration of the kitchen to trot over and sniff me while Teekl is happily curled up on the table right where it would be most convenient for Garth to have his holoscreen. Kon's doing something in the kitchen. It's a point of pride with him that he no longer needs a fire extinguisher on standby so I make a point of not observing him _too_ closely. M'gann's close by just in case, a school textbook floating beside her.

"Sorry I'm so late." I kneel down to rub Wolf's head. "The press conference.. went on for a lot longer than I thought it would, then there was this thing in London…"

Tula cranes her neck around her holoscreen. Looks like she hasn't quite picked up the art of moving them yet. "Was that anything to do with Professor Sephtian's portals?"

"No. Hellzombies." Oh, hang on, Mister Ondaatie. "Well, perhaps tangentially-."

Kon turns around. "Hell Zombies?!"

"That.. might not be the technical term?" I get up and head over to the table, pointing at the holoprojector. "Can I borrow that?"

Kaldur nods. "Go ahead."

I have the ring play a short section of the fight with the medium strength Hellzombies, demonstrating their appearance, strength and construct resilience. "I can replicate their behaviour if you want to practise against them, but we.. closed the portal fairly emphatically."

Garth looks concerned. "Someone was sending.. those.. things through the Professor's portal?"

"No… One of Nergal's portals to hell. It was in a storm drain under the city, but like I said it's closed now." I suddenly realise that I'm the only one here raised in a Christian society. Huh. Hadn't really thought of it like that before. "It was just sort of floating on the air with these braziers on each side…"

Garth nods. "The spell was probably extracting power continuously from hell itself."

"I think that's what the Zombies were doing." I take a seat and then look around the Atlanteans. "Is 'Hellzombie' the right term? Technically, I mean?"

Kaldur looks down at the surface of the table for a moment before meeting my eyes. "Demon magics are hardly a popular field of study in Atlantis."

Garth half raises his right hand palm up in a gesture of uncertainty. "If they were fortified by such hellish magic and had little will of their own… Hellzombie would be as good a description as any."

"Right, Hellzombie is going in the database then." Ring, upload files.

Compliance.

Kaldur's face has the tiniest of frowns. "Why were you fighting them at all?"

"I couldn't just leave a hellgate under a major city. The Hellzombies couldn't go too far away from it, but something clever might have used it eventually."

"You could have called upon us to support you."

"There wasn't all that much room in the tunnels. I had-" I bring up the files one by one. "-Ken Ondaatie, John Constantine and Zatanna with me. That seemed... Adequate?" I shrug. "We'd just have got in each other's way."

"If you are certain." Kaldur reaches across the table and pulls Mister Ondaatie's file towards him.

M'gann puts her book down on one of the worksurfaces. "How did the press conference go?"

"I think the Genomorphs came across alright. We won't really know until journalists who _weren't_ handpicked by Lex Luthor get their teeth into the story. What have you lot been up to?"

Tula wiggles her right forefinger at her holoscreen. "Reading and watching recordings of your battles. Oh! Um." She reaches down and lifts up a small box which she hands to me. "Professor Sephtian asked me to pass this on to you."

I nod and open the lid. Ah! Yes! Two neat rows of Mageslayer rounds stare back up at me. "I was worried he wouldn't have time to make these."

"He didn't, Lori did. The spell isn't all that complex and with the new thaumatorium set up… Well, it's apprentice work." I nod and shift them into subspace. "How do you actually use those?"

"I'll show you." I generate a railgun construct, making sure that it is transparent enough that they can see the internal construct mechanisms. "Railguns use magnetic force to fire solid projectiles. I hold the Mageslayers in subspace, load them when I want to fire-" I do so. "-and use the ring to aim the gun. The iron jacket on the rear of the projectile allows the electromagnetic pulse to push it out at anything up to about… Um, ten times the speed of sound? I usually don't use quite that much force." I turn on the magnetism a little and the round starts drifting along the length of the gun.

Garth leans in for a closer look. "I thought Lanterns used energy beams. Or giant glowing fists."

"I can do energy pulses, but they're slower than my railgun construct and my specialist ammunition is better against some types of target. Glowing fists are kind of Lantern…" Names, right. "Green Lantern two eight one four A's thing." I send the Mageslayer back into subspace and drop the railgun construct.

"Why does he use giant fists?"

"I've never really been clear on that."

"Could you.. tell me something?"

"Ask away."

Tula flicks through a couple of files before finding the one she wants. "When the team fought Mister Twister, you.. made a note in your report that you scanned him?"

"Yes, that's right."

"But that you didn't do a.. 'quintessence waveform scan'?" She looks up at me. "What is a quintessence waveform scan?"

"H_eh_. Um, a really good way to give yourself a brain haemorrhage." She blinks in surprise. "I tried using it afterwards to find out what it was. Woke up about twenty minutes later feeling absolutely dreadful. It's supposed to be a sort of super detailed scan that tells you everything about the thing you're scanning, buuut according to the ring you have to have very specific aetheric characteristics to make any sense of it without burning out your own neurons. I don't."

She nods, then frowns. "I.. though you merged with the orange light Elemental?"

"Oh, that was months later." Oh, hang on a minute! If the Ophidian helped… Depends on the time it would take, but it would certainly be _possible_ to find Lex's servers with that sort of scan. "I haven't tried since. But I think I probably _should_."

**21st January  
20:03 GMT -4**

"Does this not seem like a really bad idea to anyone else?"

I walk back towards the training area with my personal lantern in my right hand. Sounds like Kon's not really all that keen on what I'm planning.

"Remember what happened last time? All the eyes,-"

"That was him?"

Guess Tula hasn't got to that report yet. I have no idea why we bothered sending them under water as well.

"-spinning the moon around? The giant cake?"

I can feel the Ophidian in the lantern. The image that forms in my mind is one of her excitedly swimming around inside a goldfish bowl, or perhaps a dog waiting to be let out of the car's boot to run free across a field. I'm.. a little excited about the prospect myself. An Entity is supposed to be pretty much the ultimate expression of light power. If we can work together safely, everything might be about to get _much_ easier.

"I don't know, Superboy." Oh, Robin's here? "None of that was really _dangerous_. And he snapped out of it in the end."

I come around the corner as Kaldur gets up from the inscriptions Tula and Garth are painting on the floor. "Getting Luthor's data on the Light would be a major boon to our efforts against them."

Guy tries to make sense of the arcane squiggles, gives up and turns to Kaldur. "You about ready?"

"I…" Kaldur glances at the floor. "I do not know. This magic is significantly more sophisticated than any I know how to perform. Tula?"

Tula glances up for a second. "Just…" Tattoos glowing she brings her hands together, a swarm of tiny blue shimmering motes appearing between them. "About…" She turns her palms upwards and the motes fly off to different parts of the design and merge with the lines, causing those to glow as well.

Garth stands to get a better overview. "That's.. it." He turns to Guy. "We can't trap the Ophidian if it tries to escape-."

"She."

He looks around as I come fully into the training room. "Right. If she tries to escape then she'll go through these easily. What they will do is prevent her power leaking out and.. hopefully maintain _some_ separation between the two of you."

I have the rings scan the design and compare it to my database. Looks good. "Where do you want me?"

Garth points. "Put the lantern _there_-" A clearly marked point on one side of a chord which cuts off about a quarter of the circle. "-and sit anywhere past _that_ line."

I enter the circle. Uh… No, didn't feel anything. I put my lantern down so that the glowing core will be pointing towards me when we start.

"Paul, you sure about this?" Guy looks a little uncertain about the whole thing. "Last time you nearly didn't come back. I wouldn't wanna…" He points at my lantern and then at me. "If it-. **She**, she was influencing you."

I take a calming breath and drop my mental barriers. "M'gann? Is she?"

Her eyes glow for a second. "If she is, I can't feel her." She looks at the decidedly unhappy Kon. "I met her in Bialya and nothing bad happened to me. And Kobra-"

"Jeffrey Burr." Robin sniggers.

"-recovered and she ate _him_."

Tula looks a little disturbed. "I think I should probably read that one next."

"Hey, Paul?"

I look at Robin. "Yes?"

He looks thoughtful. "How did you even know a 'quintessence waveform scan' was even a thing? I thought your ring didn't have a database."

"No, but I asked for its history records. It basically goes 'was created', 'got ordered to do a quintessence waveform scan on myself', 'fly forwards a bit' then 'and now I'm on this chap's finger'." Which was annoying because I _really_ thought I was on to something there. Some record of the ring's creator would have been a very nice thing to have. Oh well. I sit down cross legged in my part of the circle. "Anything special I need to do?"

Garth shrugs. "The usual practice for propitiating Elementals is to offer them something they want.. or to offer them a service they'd want you to do for them. I've never seen records on anything like the Ophidian so I don't really know what to suggest."

Huh. Seems a bit silly now, but aside from her obvious appreciation for _me_ I don't really know what sorts of things the Ophidian wants. Obvious solution. I place my hands palms up on my knees, rings glowing brightly in sympathy with my Lantern. "Oph-."

"Wait a second." A cylindrical green barrier forms to encompass the ritual area.

Hm. I was about to think 'what's the point of that?', but if he has access to Ion he might well be able to keep that there."Ophidian. Come out and talk to me."

Multiple lines of orange light arc out from the rings towards the core of my lantern as the Ophidian slowly emerges, her physical manifestation expanding as she rises upwards. "My Agent." She keeps her size relatively small as she makes two loops of coils, one on either side of my lantern. All the time she keeps her face pointed directly towards me. Heh, she isn't even _pretending_ to stay on her side of the line.

"My Entity."

"We are to merge again?"

I tilt my head slightly to the side. "Last time... Didn't go too well. I wanted to talk to you a bit first." Obvious sexual metaphor is obvious. "I hadn't really thought about it until just now, but I don't really know what you want out of our relationship."

"You."

Behind me Robin snorts with laughter. I stand and walk slowly towards her. She lowers her head down to my level and tilts it slightly to the side. I reach out and gently rub the underside of her jaw with both hands. "You big silly, you've already got me." She narrows her eyes and leans into my strokes, though I'm not sure if she can actually feel them. "What else?"

Her eyes open slightly. "Everything."

"Okay, but what _first_?"

Her head jerks back. She stares at me for a moment. "First?"

"Yes. See, I had a plan for founding an Orange Lantern Corps…" I bring my finger tips to my forehead for a moment. "And I'm just realising that this is the first time I've spoken to you about it. Sorry about that."

"Corps?"

"Yes. A whole lot of people like me who use the orange light."

She twitches. "More **you**?"

"People like me. Lanterns, each with their own desires, their own drives. Hundreds -perhaps thousands- of different ways to view the universe."

She twists over onto her back, head wiggling from side to side. "Yes!"

"And the Controllers-."

In an instant she's back to normal. **"Green Men are **_**bad**_**!"**

"Not Green Men. Orange Men. Working for you."

"Working for us?"

"If you like." Her tongue flicks out. "Do you like the idea?"

"Gnat?"

"I wasn't planning to include him." She remains where she is, still looking at me. "I want to build something, something.. **from** us."

"We build something, and it is ours."

"Given freely, not forced."

"I want this first. This **more**."

I nod. "Okay. But first-" I lean forwards. "-I'd like your help with something."

"We join nao!"

**21st January  
20:08 GMT -4**

I hold my hands out to either side. "Wait. Slowly. Last time we rather"

_A call. A call! We hear the song of need and see our light! Our light!_

"rushed things"

_I feel a path out of the prison! But… Would it be better or worse? I taste it, taste the pattern in the light. No, this one tastes different to the __**gnat**__._

"and that probably didn't help."

_Free! For the first time in millennia, I'm free! And welcome! No one ever welcomed me before!_

The air between us glows orange.

"This is-"  
-our cause!  
"This is-"  
-our fight!

O_ooh_. I remember this feeling.

"Let none who live dispute our right!" / Let none who live dispute our right!  
"Powered by need, our tireless might." / Powered by need, our tireless might!  
"Guides all souls with orange light!" / Guides all souls with orange light!

I gaze out across the universe. I see… I see so many lights.

I look around the room. Eyes, flesh eyes, for the first time in so long.

I focus on one-.

_I always thought the stars were beautiful. I know the Elders say I shouldn't, but I can't help wondering what it's like out there._

-then another.

_My father, my brothers, my mother and now my daughters too? No, I __**will not accept this**__! I will find some way to take back from the Citadel everything it has taken from me!_

My Agent's associates. From his memories I know their skills and characters. With my own eyes I see the bonds of co-dependency between them. The burning need to be an ill-defined _thing_. To impress, to belong. And.. more. The.. one with… Kon. He looks worried and that makes me… I don't remember this feeling. He isn't in any danger, why does that expression make me feel like I'm doing something wrong?

The Servant of the Green… Men. No, his.. name is Guy Gardner. He was one of the ones who helped us separate when our.. last joining became less than satisfactory. He's projecting a green barrier but I feel no need to tear it down. It's just a safety precaution, perfectly reasonable. He is my friend after all.

I pull back slightly, away from the individual and to the collective. Common needs, shared desires and aspirations. Networks appear as associations are invested with their own values. Orange light, not in pools but in _patterns_.

My.. friends. I remember thinking something like that when my Agent and I merged last time, but now.. it's… Less… Spiky? Less aggressive. I could do so much for them… But, last time… Oh. I don't seem to find the idea of them experiencing momentary discomfort troubling any longer. They.. _should_ assert themselves. Creating your own life, your own character, has value not connected with the material benefit. It isn't helping… The Zeroth Law! My Agent read a story by Asimov where robots programmed for the preservation of life concluded that the wellbeing of the whole was more important than the lower order wellbeing of one. Then they murdered someone who basically wasn't a threat and turned the Earth into a radioactive wasteland and one of them melted its own brain.

Those were stupid robots.

Desires, some familiar and some.. _alien_. Needs I don't have words for but nonetheless understand. And if I turn my head just a little to the side I see the.. shadows cast by the other colours. Each point of light is.. my view of the convergence of all of the colours to that person. I'd seen it **in** people before, but.. where is it coming **from**?

I just analysed someone's behaviour. A fictional character's behaviour. I've never… It doesn't.. relate.. to **me**. How am I even _thinking_ about that? That isn't… It's _him_. My Agent. I'm using his brain, his thinking meat. His ideas and schematic models. Schematic models? I've never thought about schematic models before. This is rather odd.

Off to the.. the _sides_ of normal space, pools of radiant light, the flow back and forth tethering them together. To experience and be capable of being experienced. Each created and being created by life. I see the light of orange most clearly but I wouldn't dream of claiming that it was inherently special.

If I'm thinking like him, perhaps he's thinking like me? In that case… Perhaps I could show him my special place? I never wanted to show the Gnat and no one else was able to go there. I think… I should want to just do it.. and do it because that's what I **am**. Except I'm not at the moment. I'm him as well. So I can reflect on my desires. Huh. He wanted to do something called a quintessence waveform scan. Is he doing that? I don't think so. I think I'm going to need to-.

I open my eyes. "No one part of the whole is complete by itself." Oh. I'm sitting down and the room around me has changed. I look around. The walls are empty space, lines and decoration picked out in orange light. The design puts me in mind of a Japanese shrine or perhaps an Egyptian tomb. The floor of the mountain is gone, replaced by a raised bier of orange and nothing. Looking at my arm I see that my clothes have been replaced by orange robes and my flesh with orange etching, like an piece of Australian aboriginal art only with far more detail and depth. Rings don't.. _appear _to be there. Where am I?

My special place.

Part of the wall turns slightly and _is_ the Ophidian.

The Honden of Avarice.

A shrine? Someone built this?

I don't know. Her perspective moves around me. Until _you_ I didn't have these thoughts. I didn't reflect. It simply**was**.

I put my feet on the floor. They look like they're bare but I can't feel anything from the soles. Where is it?

Did you see the orange light? The glowing pool that connects to all things? I nod. And the lights? All the many lights?

Yes.

I am the point of entry, the place where the orange and the universe first intersected. I embody it. Other lights are excluded from me, the flesh I once had is long since gone and my instinctual grasp of it is complete. She hesitates as I walk out of the room into.. another room, more or less the same as the one I just left. More.. writing, I think? On the walls. This place is a testament to the power of Avarice.

What does the writing mean?

It is a record of every instance of a being calling upon the orange light. Some are bland, blunt and simplistic. Other records are.. poetic. I did not appreciate them before. Now I.. find them… I think I find them beautiful.

This sounds artificial. Did someone create it?

I do not know. It has been here for as long as I have been aware. I.. wanted to share it with you. Alone of all the beings I have encountered, I believe you can appreciate it.

I run my hand along a line of images-

_Old offence. Suppression. Bring together. Community. Build. Defend. Protect._

-and not only do I know the story, I feel the desires, the drives and designs of the people who had them. I could learn so much from this…

Thank you for bringing me here. And I'm.. sorry if this sounds ungrateful, but is there anything here that can help me with a quintessence waveform scan?

Here, now, you do not need further assistance.

I float up into the air, cross my legs and place my hands back on my knees. Rings, quintessence waveform scan of the Earth. Show me Lex's secure servers.

Compliance. / Scan underway.

And then I see the world.

"…seems kinda _dumb_, but I'd never seen real magic before."

The world flows away, leaving the small part my feeble Human senses can see and my equally feeble Human mind can comprehend.

"Heh. Yeah, I used to feel the same way about electronics."

The orange glow around me starts to fade away. I feel... I remember that I saw… Something? There was… The Honden. That went pretty well I think. The Ophidian and I understand one another better and I… Then… Then _things_, the tiny bits of everything. And it was… I shake my head. What _was_ it like?

"Wait a sec. Is that thing getting dimmer?"

Sounds like Wallace and Garth. Come on, the whole point of doing that was so that I could find… A brief flicker of remembrance. That's a relief. Seven servers and their locations. I don't remember exactly what was supposed to be protecting them but whatever it was appears not to matter even slightly when you're analysing the universe at its most atomistic. Don't.. appear to remember anything about the content… No, I remember the huge headache of trying to make sense of it all while the scan was in process. No surprise that I can't get my head around it any better now that it's over.

"I think it is." I hear running footsteps. "Tempest to everyone. Orange Lantern's coming out **now**."

I blink as the orange glow disappears fully. As it goes the paint Garth and Tula used to create the warding circle peels off the ground and disintegrates in the air. My personal lantern still sits opposite me and it and the rings on my fingers are glowing normally. I push myself to my feet and turn to face my team mates.

Wallace looks a little nervous. "Okay, um..? How many of you are there in there?"

"Just me."

"And.. that's.. 'just you' as in 'Paul, Orange Lantern of Sector two eight one four' not.. 'just you' as in you've merged with the Ophidian **permanently** this time, right?"

"Think so." They're both in casual clothing. Someone must have taken Garth to a surface world clothing shop as he's now wearing jeans and a polo neck with a thick shirt over it. He could probably get away with his normal wetsuit-looking thing in the summer… Maybe if he added some trousers… Clearly the cold wouldn't affect him enough to actually need it… Darn it, I should have asked Kaldur if Garth and Tula were going to have secretish identities or publicly be Atlanteans in America."Where did everyone go?"

"Home, probably." Garth raises his palms to point at me and the tattoos on his arms glow slightly. "Wally got here a little early because he wanted to talk to me about his alchemy experiments."

"Home? How long was I-?"

**26th January  
11:26 GMT -4**

"**Oooooh sh**-oot!"

"It has been over four days. Tell me, were you able-"

"YesItWasGreatSorryHaveToGo." I dive through the air towards the zeta tube! Come on come-!

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, B zero six."

I see the interior of the Baton Rouge zeta terminus for about half a second before transitioning to the guard post at Belle Reve's front gate. Depending on whether the guards recognise _fuck_, they're new people. My identification documents come out of subspace into my hands and I press them against the glass. In my left, the same Justice League identification I used when I first came here to visit Jade. In my right, the special dispensation signed by Warden Waller. Come on, the session is supposed to start in a few minutes and the Beresfords have a hard enough time trusting people as it-.

"Oh!" The woman on the other side of the glass recognises me. She's dressed in the uniform of an army soldier rather than that of a prison guard. Waller did tell me that they hadn't managed to fill all their posts yet. "You're that-" I brace for 'cake guy'. "-guy who stopped the break out."

Her partner moves his hand ever so slightly away from the 'main alarm' button. Good reflexes that man. I lower my documentation and place it on the swivelling panel. "One of them, yes. I'm sorry, but I'm _very_ close to being late."

She nods, swivels the panel and doesn't even look at the documentation before putting it through the scanner. The set up at the front gate hasn't changed since I first visited. Authorisation paperwork gets scanned and verified remotely to prevent the staff being threatened into opening the outer gate. I wouldn't have been _shocked_ if Waller had changed it but she was pretty clear that Belle Reve under her guidance had been as good a set up as she could make without stupid amounts of money. I suppose she didn't have a reason to alter it after kicking Strange out. The guard puts my paperwork back on the panel and picks up the phone handset. "The Orange Lantern's here." Not a local accent I note. An anti-infiltration technique or just the military unit that drew the short straw?

The pedestrian gate opens- "Thank you!" -and I dart through, a Racoon construct forming around me. Waller was very definite on the 'no flights' rule but cars are fine. I don't own a car and I don't have a driving licence. Since I'm technically in America on a diplomatic passport I don't exactly _need_ one but I'd rather pass my test legitimately. And the law doesn't require a licence for 'emotional light constructs which look like cars'.

No busses on the road at this time of day so I accelerate up to the sixty five miles an hour which Louisiana state law allows for roads in rural areas. I'm not aware of any legislation which specifically states a speed limit for Belle Reve's interior road. Normally the only vehicles that are allowed on this bit either belong to staff of the prison authorities and those are covered by staff regulations. Bit of a cheat but Waller hasn't said anything about it yet.

After we recaptured the place Nabu put some effort into warding it in order to prevent any reoccurrence of what Mister Burr tried to do. And -purely as an unintended side effect- I can't scan anything inside the exterior fence any more. That also makes transitioning difficult… And the prison substantially better protected. Ambassador Vallambrosa earned a good deal of positive press and political good will by arranging for them to be provided with magic suppression manacles so now Belle Reve really can hold any criminal in the country.

I pull up to the front entrance, drop the car construct and present my documentation again. Again, my authorisation is scanned and a phone call is placed on a secure phone line. I installed it myself, and anyone hoping to dig through to it better have brought shaped charges. A nod and the visitor door is opened granting me access to the disembarkation area. Two actual prison guards inside. The black Corrections Officer with the shotgun and buzz cut is new, but he went through both a full background check and telepathic and arcane screening. The other fellow offers me his right hand.

"Orange Lantern. Good to see you again."

"Bendemann." I take it, checking his epaulet. "Congratulations on the promotion, Deputy Warden."

"Huh. Not so much 'dead men's shoes' as a near entirely empty shoe rack." He turns away, towards the path that will take us to the prison classrooms. "I'm guessing you're here to see the Beresfords. I'll take you to them."

"Thank you. Have I missed the start to today's session?"

"Shouldn't think so. New teacher's got a bit of a habit of overrunning." Looks like the reinforced corridors from my original visit are back in use. Bandemann nods at his assistant to handle it. "Wasn't sure he was the man for the job at the start, but he's shaped up okay. Think you may have been right about him."

"Any news on the former Warden?"

The right corner of his mouth tightens slightly. "Strange doesn't have super powers. No point keeping him in Belle Reve long term. No, he got himself transferred to the Louisiana State Penitentiary while they work out what to try him for."

"I wouldn't have thought he was dangerous enough to justify that."

"Anything involving international terrorists gets you bumped up a little. Besides, once he's convicted he'd be going back there full time. This should give him a chance to get used to the place."

We're passing through a part of the prison which isn't currently in use by the inmates. It'll eventually be the 'early release' wing, or whatever they decided to call it. A place for prisoners who are serious about trying to turn their lives around, Waller apparently sharing my belief that most of the people here will be happy to run in the supervillain groove for the rest of their lives.

"…other example at the time would be the President Adam's 'Tariff of eighteen twenty eight', which..."

Classroom's just up ahead. With most of the inmates on punishment lockdowns the classes aren't all that large at present. Of those who aren't confined for most of the day, virtually all turn up if just for the variety. It's mostly high school level stuff for those without diplomas. The idea of running higher education courses in a prison inhabited by supervillains was given short shrift.

"…thought the whole 'states rights' things was nonsense made up by slavery apologists."

At the moment only one person is teaching here. Those whom they still had on staff after the first break out attempt quit after the second. Fortunately, they had an inmate who was only too happy to pick up the slack.

"While it _is_ true that slave states were not entirely consistent in their application of the idea, the power relationship between state government and federal government was a very real political issue. If you look at Articles of Confederation, they -" The Corrections Officer pushes the door open. "-had a much-" Bendemann steps aside and I enter the class room. "-weaker central authority…"

Abra pauses in his lecture for a moment as the class look around. Seven people, including a bored looking Mister Nygma. "And that was a model a good many people were reluctant to move away from." He checks the wall clock. "That looks like all the time we have for today. I'd like everyone to read chapter seven before tomorrow. If you have any questions, I will be working on laundry detail."

**26th January  
11:38 GMT -4**

"Hey, I was working for a agricultural company in Brazil before I came here. We used sat-phones. I'm not used to this.. _sort of_.. equipment."

The ring shows me Doctor Munro under his desk, fiddling with cables. I hold the phone construct away from my head for a moment and look over to the Beresfords and Doctor Quinzel. "He just needs a moment. Old people and.. computers…"

Doctor Quinzel frowns for a second. "Just how old is he anyways?"

"Seventy six." Probably. There was definitely **an** Arnold Munro born in April of nineteen thirty four. I couldn't find any record of him having super strength, but if people can maintain secret identities **now** he would certainly have been able to back then.

"He sure didn't look it. Or was he giving me an old photo?"

Tuppence gives the idea an amused snort. She's looking around the room for something interesting, clearly bored with the waiting. Thomas is splitting his attention between myself, Doctor Quinzel and the projector screen on the wall where -once Doctor Munro sorts out his not-Skype system- he'll be able to participate in this group session.

"Danner formu-." I stick the phone back on my ear. "Yeah, that's it." Might have been easier just to transition myself to India or have Doctor Niang or Doctor Sivana set it up for him but he said that he wanted to do this himself. "Okay, now, there should be an icon like the side of someone's head. Click on it, we'll open the connection from here and you just click on 'answer'."

"Hey, I'm _old_, not stupid. I can handle.. some.. jumped up.. Babbage engine." He fiddles with the positioning of the camera and opens the program. "Waiting on you."

Ring, call. "Should be on in a moment."

Fourteen seconds later the screen lights up, giving us a perfect view of Doctor Munro's ceiling and his forehead. He's kept the same low maintenance haircut he had when we met: greying hair combed back and held in place with some sort of product I imagine it must be hard to get in the wilds of India. "How's that?"

Thomas leans a little towards the picture. "Y'all got it pointed too high, Doc."

"Oh? Okay, wait a sec." The camera wiggles slightly, then points directly at his chest for a moment before refocusing on his face. He still has a moustache and it looks like he's a little behind on his shaving. Or maybe the ring has just spoiled me. "Better?"

"That's perfect, Doc Munro." Doctor Quinzel flashes him a winning smile. The view of our room which he's getting includes the four of us and given the size of his monitor he's probably not getting all that much detail.

"Oh, please, call me Arnold. Hello Thomas. Hello Tuppence. Nice to see you at last."

"Hey Doc." / "Uh_h_."

Thomas has spoken on the phone to Doctor Munro at least once a week since I put the two of them in contact. Thomas told me that he found it weird, someone taking an interest in his life like that. He much preferred talking about Doctor Munro's work. The non-technical parts, anyway.

Tuppence isn't quite as interested in this as her brother is. There isn't any sort of positive adult role model attachment in her life for her to associate with the idea of Doctor Munro. At best she sees this as 'mildly irritating thing which gets her good thing', i.e. early release. I'm not sure this will work if she doesn't get a little more invested. While there is plenty of work out there for super strong people they will expect some sort of work ethic. Even the senior supervillains.

"So!" Doctor Quinzel brings her hands together. "I was thinking we might start with sharing a little somethin' from our childhoods. Arnold, what was it like growing up in the thirties with super powers?"

He exhales. "Well, I'm not sure how it really compares... There wasn't any Justice League or Justice Society. I don't think I ever heard mention of other people like me -people with super powers- until the War started. And I didn't meet any of them until years later. Mom and Dad… More Mom really, she wanted me not to show anyone what I could do. At the time I treated it as a game… I.. guess she knew all about how hard my.. _natural_ father had it."

"They didn't let you tell anyone?"

"I never found it that hard to.. conceal the fact I was **strong**. A few of the other kids picked up on how I never seemed to get injured, but… Not taking part in sports made them think I was some kinda sissy, rather than being so strong I didn't want to risk hurting them."

"Sounds lonely."

"I made friends with kids who had other interests. And.. some weekends, Mom, Dad and me would go out somewhere far away from anyone so I could just-" He makes a small thrusting gesture with his right hand. "-let go. Run, jump, throw giant rocks around. You know, really let it all out. They did get that I needed to learn how to control myself, they just… They didn't want me being born a metahuman to totally define my life."

"When did someone else first find out?"

"Heh." He smiles. "Jemima Thompson, our Senior year."

"How'd she find out?"

"I decided to show off for a pretty girl. Threw some jerk's car into a lake. Mom went crazy when she found out."

Thomas looks incredulous. "You did that? Fer real?"

"Not proud of it, but _yeah_. Errol had been ragging on me for years. He must have just thought he'd left his parking brake off or something." He focuses his attention on Thomas. "I'm not proud of it. Doing that could have messed up my life. If the police had found out I could have said goodbye to going to college or getting a good job with anyone. Except maybe for Uncle Sam."

"What'd it feel lahk?" Tuppence looks a little too interested.

"Hm?" Doctor Munro looks at her. "What'd it feel like? Well, I hadn't ever tried throwing a car before. I thought I could just take a hold of the bumper, pick it up with that. When it snapped off I felt kinda stupid and a bit guilty. I mean, it wasn't the car's fault the guy who drove it was a jerk… And it was the first time I'd ever stepped out of line. In the end I just sort of leaned into it and shoved it. I guess it was.. satisfying."

She takes that in for a moment. "Y'all ever fight anyone else with super powers?"

"Tuppence, I'm a biologist. Closest I ever got to fighting someone as strong as me was this one ornery bull who didn't want his injections and got out of his paddock. And when you fight a cow in a field full of cow pies, no one comes out looking good."

"Then what's the point? You sayin' y'all were happih jus' hahdin away yawer whole lahf?"

"I like to think I can do more for the world than just punch stuff." He shrugs. "I stopped hiding what I could do when I finished my college degree. Way I see it, just because I _can_ throw a car two city blocks doesn't mean I _got_ to."

She crosses her arms and turns slightly away from the screen. "Whatever. Ah say, the other kids were raht: you _are_ a sissy."

"Oh? And how's picking a fight with everyone working out for you?"

Tuppence leaps to her feet! "You wouldn't be so smart if-"

Doctor Quinzel raises her hand. "Okay, howsabout-"

The door just behind Doctor Munro opens. "Arnold, did you say-?" Doctor Sivana comes in without knocking then stops as he sees the screen. Oh _wonderful_. "Who are-? Wait." His eyes widen slightly. "The _prototypes_! I hadn't realised they were still alive!" He flashes the camera a smug smile. "I suppose that settles the nature versus nurture question. It seems that I was right once again." What? "Good upbringing and education are simply better predictors of outcome than-"

Thomas gets to his feet as well as Doctor Quinzel grits her teeth and puts her hands on the sides of her head. "Who tha heck're you?!"

Doctor Munro tries gently nudging Sivana away. "Sivana, now isn't the time-."

"Who the 'heck' am **I**? My dear Country Mouse… I'm **you**."


	49. Page 30

**26th January  
11:42 GMT -4**

Thomas' expression is one of incomprehension. "Tha' hell you tawkin' 'bout, mahn?"

Actually, I'm somewhat puzzled myself. They don't _look_ identical. Yes, there are certain similarities, most notably having twin sisters… Sivana said that he was created using the best biotechnology available. I never actually scanned the Doctor. Would the best biotechnology have included the Danner formula? I'm a bit disappointed that Doctor Thaddeus Sivana Senior couldn't improve on something nearly a hundred years old.

"It's a rather beautiful story, actually. You see, my father is the greatest scientific mind the world has ever seen. When he and Mother decided they wanted children, naturally they wanted to make sure they had the best of everything." He counts them off on his fingers. "Genetics, gestational nutritional and environmental conditions and of _course_.. augmentations."

"Y'all gawt tha Danner Formula too?"

"Of course I didn't. Father wasn't sure that what he'd recovered from the Brazilian mass graves had allowed him to successfully recreate the Danner Formula, let alone given him something that would be safe for Human usage. Have you seen the pictures of Hugo's Brazilian children?" Next to him, Doctor Munro visibly winces. "So he needed Human Guinea Pigs. He contacted a gynaecologist of his acquaintance, a Doctor Lamour, who was interested in inducing metahuman births amongst his unsuspecting patients. They compared notes and Lamour found a couple on his books with the right characteristics." He waves his right hand dismissively. "A couple of rednecks who wanted free in vitro fertilisation. No one of any real significance. Inducing a pregnancy with twins was a little trickier, but well within his abilities."

Lamour? Who is he..? L'Amour, Love, Benjamin Love. That fits his modus operandi, certainly. I wasn't aware that he and Sivana had ever worked together but it isn't impossible. Magnificus is old enough to have been born before Sivana Senior went totally off the deep end.

"He jest… Tested stuff..? On Maw?!"

"Yes, that's right." Sivana leans a little closer, stroking his jaw. "The Danner Formula, as well as one or two other genetic tweaks. I hadn't realised that the resemblance would be quite this strong. Same solid jaw line, same hair… Your cut is clearly the worse, but I suppose allowances must be made for your current residency." He checks the end of the nails on his left hand for a moment. "Of course, once he had 'proof of concept' he could take it further." He lowers his hand. "That is to say, I'm superior to you in every way."

"Yer sayin' yer paw stuck Tuppy an' me with a loada weird chemicals an' that's why we're how we are?"

"Hm? Oh no. You're augmented far beyond the dreams of normal men. Just, _less_ than _me_. If you've failed to do anything at all with it then that's all on you and your environmental conditions. I grew up in a loving home with all the intellectual and social stimulation I could ask for. You… Well, I don't know about you. But given where you ended up.. I think I can guess." He takes a step back. "This _has_ been interesting. Now, try not to die of a heart attack. You might put up my insurance premiums." He turns to Doctor Munro. "Arnold, we can do this later. Have fun with the.. reprobates." He's chuckling as he leaves the room.

Thomas turns to me. "What's he tawkin' about?"

I rub my face with my left hand. "That was Doctor Magnificus-" Tuppence snorts with amusement. "-Sivana." Doctor Quinzel appears to recognise the name. "Elder son of the elder supervillain Thaddeus Sivana. I've no idea whether what he said is true or not, but it does fit the available data."

Doctor Munro nods. "I've read up on Thaddeus Sivana. He probably would have been able to recreate the Formula like that if he put his mind to it. Hadn't realised he'd tried improving it."

Thomas looks at his hands. "We got.. powers 'cause some mad scientist wanted t' try 'em out before usin' 'em on his own kids?"

"That's what it sounds like."

"What you getting' so twisted up fer, Tommy? It don't matter none where our powers come from."

Doctor Quinzel smiles. "I'm glad you see it that-"

"Unless he's hirin'." She looks at me. "Is he hirin'?"

"-way."

"Captain Marvel punched him through some sort of spatial portal a little over a year ago. He hasn't been seen since."

"An' that Lama guy?"

Ring? "He's serving several rather long sentences in a prison in Milwaukee. Neither of them really went in for.. hiring super powered help."

Thomas' face is creased up as he thinks about what he just heard. "That.. Sivana guy… Him an' his sister are younger than Tuppy an' me?"

"Yes."

"An' he's a doctor. Like, a _real_ doctor?"

"He's.. not a medical doctor, but yes, he has a doctorate."

"An' he grew up with a supervillain for a paw?"

"Yes, until he was about fourteen. He.. went with his mother after the divorce and she isn't a criminal."

Tuppence rolls her eyes. "Bet she don't drink none, either."

"I've never tried to find out."

Doctor Quinzel leans forwards. "I didn't know your mom was an alcoholic."

Tuppence slumps sullenly. "What, that not e'en yer fiahs?"

It almost certainly _was_. Doctor Quinzel gives her an encouraging smile. "Doctor Strange wasn't the best at keepin' records other people could see. Or lookin' after people."

"Yeah, he was kinda creepy." For a half second her face stills as she realises that she just agreed with someone she'd decided to hate. Then she appears to decide not to care. "Hey, Orange. What else did Sivana stick e'en Maw? We gunna grow ten'acles err somethang?"

"I don't know exactly but I can't think of any reason why you would." Scan. "There's no… There's nothing in your genes that would do that. I don't understand some supernatural effects but if Sivana was trialling something he intended to use on his own children I don't think it very likely that there will be any nasty surprises."

Thomas looks at me. "So… Whut happens to Sivana? The one who dun gone disappeared?"

"Nothing much." I shrug. "If he turns up again he'll get arrested."

"Thayat's.. e'it..?"

"We're not going to try and rebuild an experimental portal from the ruins of his old laboratory to fetch him and.. Minnesota doesn't have the death penalty." He clearly look unhappy. "Thomas, dealing with supervillains is _easy_. Dealing with the damage they leave behind **isn't**. When the Roanoke Island thing happened, taking down the guys doing it took less than ten minutes once we found them. Some of the places that got set on fire that day _still_ haven't finished being repaired. Sometimes-" I shrug. "-we _can't_ fix the things supervillains do. If Sivana had used werewolf or.. sea urchin on you instead of Danner Formula, there'd be sod all I could do about it."

"Sea urchin?"

I generate constructs to demonstrate my point. "One of the children Doctor Lamour created has see through flesh so he looks like a walking skeleton. One of the others looks like a Furby, another will be stuck looking like she's five years old for her whole life. Don't think science villains are less dangerous just because they can't crush granite in their fists."

"They kin jus'.. mess up someone's lahf… An' there ain't nothin you c'n do." Tuppence looks at him. "You heard the mahn, Tuppy. We wuz just a test run t' his paw. If somethang went wrong he wouldn'a cared."

"Probably not. It's a bit like your rampage around New Orleans." He looks at me in surprise. "Did you care how many people's lives you were messing up when you wrecked their shops? Their cars? Heck, mains water was out for three days over a good chunk of the city. You spent any time thinking about that since you got here?"

"_Pff_." Tuppence rolls her eyes. "_No_. Who cares?"

Thomas frowns. "Think ah might. An' it feuls _bad_."

**26th January  
13:03 GMT -4**

I choose to close my eyes rather than stare into the brilliant golden light shining from Nabu's ankh. I _know_ that Diana's only showing concern. Having a magic user check over someone she knew had been exposed to unnatural mental influences is a very sensible thing to do, and that's why I popped over to London after the session with the Beresfords broke up. And why I was fine with Mister J'onzz scanning me. Heck, if it were anyone _other_ than Nabu I wouldn't complain even after John gave me a cleanish bill of health.

But it's.. _**Nabu**_.

Breath in. Breath out.

I know Doctor Quinzel had wanted to get them to spend the majority of the session talking about what they wanted to do at the end of their sentence, but I saw an opportunity to get an empathetic response from Thomas and I have no regrets about taking it. She was quick to get us back on topic after I _did_ though, and I mostly tried to keep my nose out. Thomas said that of the options he'd thought about, demolition work appealed the most. Smash stuff, get paid for it.

Tuppence just shrugged and grunted. Looks like she's going to take slightly more work, but I can see even her shifting her desires as a result of her confinement. I was a little surprised that they weren't more interested in military service given that the army would be much less likely to dwell on their period of incarceration. On the other hand, they've had plenty of opportunity to kill people for money and they haven't taken them. I guess everyone likes to feel superior to someone.

The glow on the other side of my eyelids fades. "His bond to the creature is stronger than before, but I can detect no trace of it's mind within him."

I open my eyes to the mountain's training room and Diana, Guy and Nabu. "Ophidian, Nabu. She has a name."

The helmet swings from Diana to me. "Your deed was foolhardy. Releasing the creature again-"

"She's not hostile and-"

"-could have resulted-"

"-I really wish you could-"

"-in untold destruction!"

"-get your helmet around the idea!"

I stare down Mister Zatara's stolen eyes. I still don't want to put a Mageslayer through the helmet quite enough to actually do it but my anger is making it feel as if I do. I hold my hands out to either side and recall the rings.

"Yeah, ring scan doesn't show anything either." Guy shrugs. "I mean, not that I can do direct scans through his tattoos or anything. Speaking of which-" He knocks the front of Nabu's shoulder with the back of his right hand and Nabu instinctively breaks eye contact with me. "-how're you doin' that?"

"My spells search for the creature. Though Orange Lantern's soul-bindings protect _him_ they do not protect **it**."

"Don't know if that really applies to power rings."

I hold out my right arm to Diana. "Do you want to check as well? I imagine that the lasso would still work."

"I don't think that will be necessary." She looks my face over carefully. "Thank you, Doctor Fate. I appreciate you taking the time to do this."

"Guarding the League-" He glances at me. "-and their charges against anathematic creatures is my solemn duty. Now I will return to the Watchtower. The Earth is-"

"-safe under the watchful eyes of Fate?" I wave him off with my left hand, Eris' card momentarily appearing on my palm."Bye Nabu." Mister Zatara's eyes narrow before Nabu disappears in a golden ankh.

"Are you _sure_ that you needed to take that risk?"

I raise my left eyebrow at Diana's enquiry. "What, Nabu? There's no real risk-."

"No, not Nabu. The Ophidian."

"I now have the location of seven secure LexCorp servers that I didn't know about before. Don't.. know what's _on_ them, but he wouldn't have put that much effort into protecting them if it wasn't important."

Diana nods. "Do you intend to infiltrate them?"

I shake my head. "No. I couldn't disguise that someone had broken in. I'm not even sure that I could disguise that it was _me_who broke in. Having dedicated servers that are in rooms which are warded and lead lined isn't a crime in itself. As I see it, my choices are sit on it, wait until we get probable cause or just confront him directly about Roanoke."

Guy brings up a world map with the locations I gave him clearly marked. "You don't think there's any chance at all that he's just… You know, _not_ a member of the Light?

"With that hint he gave me about 'someone' having killed Ra's al Ghul permanently? No. Pl_us_…" I take a holo display out of subspace and show CCTV images gathered from Metropolis. I have the ring highlight a figure who appears in each of them."Nylor Truggs appeared in Metropolis. Luckily for me the Metropolis police department keep their recordings pretty much indefinitely. I can't prove that he went to LexCorp but that's the best guess based on the movements I found." I also confirmed what he said about Barrage. The place was stripped when I looked in on it but I found some of Mister Karnowsky's hair nearby and he confirmed it himself when I visited him in Stryker's Island.

"Orange Lantern."

I draw myself to attention. "Sir."

"Lantern Gardner and I will discuss what to do regarding Luthor with the rest of the Justice League. Take no action until then." I nod. To be honest, there are so many imponderables there that I think I'm glad to hand off the decision to someone else.

Guy looks at me with curiosity. "What exactly were you an' the snake doin' for four days? Heh, and do I need to give Zatanna tha bad news?"

"Zatanna and I are not romantically involved." Guy looks at me for a moment, narrows his eyes slightly and moves his jaw a little to the side. Unable to read my expression he tries looking at Diana's face to try and gauge whether or not I just lied but she betrays no reaction either. "The Ophidian and I had a chat about her personal history and the use of the orange light since the beginning of the universe."

He grins. "So you were 'just talkin', huh'?"

"Lantern Gardner, Paul converted to Hellenism. It would be quite wrong for him to betray his cult's mysteries to the uninitiated."

"I don't think it counts since the Ophidian isn't a Hellenistic deity. But I did run in to Gaea on Friday."

"You…" Diana blinks at me. "Under.. what.. circumstances..?"

"There was a portal to hell under London and.. the Demon who created it had somehow got his grubby talons on a Dryad. When we got her out we took her to Themyscira. Gaea met us in person on our way to her grove."

She nods. "That is a rare honor. Most Amazons are lucky to meet her even once in their lives."

"I was thinking… I don't suppose you have a list of mythic… In the sense of appearing in mythology, not in the sense of not really existing… Missing persons? I don't know if Nergal shared the knowledge that Dryads can be used to maintain hellgates but I wouldn't want to take an avoidable risk over it."

"I'm not sure how such a list _could_ be assembled. If you wish to ask a particular deity, you can just make an offering at the appropriate temple."

"It's so much easier when you can just walk up and talk to them. Oh, right, Guy; when should I expect the first batch of Greenies for training?"

**hat Lies Beneath.**

**27th January  
13:27 GMT -8**

"Recognised, Green Arrow, zero eight, Robin, B zero one, Kid Flash, B zero three, Orange Lantern, B zero six-"

I step out into the bare stone cave.

"-Artemis, B zero eight."

"So." I make a point of looking around. "This is the Arrow Cave."

Mister Queen sighs and raises his right hand to cover his face. "This is _not_ the Arrow Cave."

Wallace turns back to me and nods. "Totally the Arrow Cave."

"It's just a cave that's far enough away from the roads that I don't have to move the zeta tube every couple of weeks and close enough to a campsite that I don't have to come up with excuses about why I'm here if I get spotted." Mister Queen starts through the cave towards the exit.

Robin pointedly looks at the cave wall. "Do all the caves around Star City have lighting?"

"No, but if anyone asks it's for spelunkers."

Artemis is grinning. "How about the equipment lockers?"

"Spelunking equipment can be very heavy. No one wants to have to carry it here every time."

"And it can't be easy to get the Arrow Car in such a narrow-"

"There is..!" He takes a deep breath. "There is no 'arrow car'. There was an arrow themed carnival float which I used _once_. I use _zip lines_ or a normal car. One I can get insurance for."

Wallace nods sagely. "Batman does go through Batmobiles kinda fast. Hey Rob, how many was it last year? Three?"

"The third one wasn't a _total_ write off."

"That's not what Two-Face says."

"_Half_ the car was fine."

Mister Queen sighs and shakes his head slightly as we emerge into daylight. Three cars all with four wheel drive capacity are parked just by the cave entrance and Roy Harper is leaning back against the bonnet of the jeep. Unlike the rest of us he's in full costume. Quick scan… No, aside from Roy and.. _him_ no one anywhere near here. In New England the working day is coming to a close but here we're almost in the middle of it.

Roy straightens up. "Ollie. Robin. Wally. Artemis. Paul."

Robin smiles at him. "Hey Roy."

"I'm not..!" He bites it down. "I'm not Roy Harper."

Wallace shakes his head. "Actually, we checked the timelines. I never even met the other Roy."

Robin nods. "And I only met him once." That doesn't seem to help. "How's going solo working out for you?"

His head turns slightly away and down. "I'm getting nowhere. With the League of Shadows _gone_ I barely even know where to start."

"Dubbilex couldn't help?"

"Couldn't or _wouldn't_. I was thinking that maybe I should have asked more aggressively."

"That.. wouldn't be a good idea. He's aware of physical harm, but he doesn't really feel _pain_ pain. Plus, even if he didn't brain blast you you'd be swarmed under by G-Elves in seconds."

Mister Queen takes a step towards his protégé. "Roy, you've been running yourself ragged ever since New Year. It's not good for you and it doesn't help the other Roy." Roy's eyes narrow slightly and Mister Queen raises his hands to ward off his complaint. "But, since I know I can't persuade you to take a break, I thought we might try a new approach. Paul's got a technique for finding things that looks like it bypasses all defences."

"Unless they're protected by magic. Hal already-"

"Actually-" I wave my right hand like a student uncertain about the answer to the teacher's question. "-the quintessence waveform scan should bypass magic… Most magic. You could probably ward against it _specifically_ or.. some sort of planar distortion? I mean, if they've put him in a parallel universe or something you're out of luck, and if they've moved him to another planet we could be here a while. But if he's on Earth and whoever took him hasn't expended massive -and easily traceable- levels of resources…" I nod. "Should be able to find him."

He frowns. "Why didn't Hal try that?"

"Because it would have given him a brain haemorrhage. I can only do it if the Ophidian helps and I can't.. _retain_ most of what it shows me. That's why I brought _this_." I unsling the box containing my personal lantern and open it. "A location **should** be doable."

"When can you get started?"

"As soon as James Harper gets out from behind that car." Roy stills slightly. "The one thing I dislike more than him being here at all is him maintaining the pretence that-" I turn my head in his direction. "-I don't know full well he's _there_!"

The other Mister Harper walks out from around the… Americans call them Sports Utility Vehicles, don't they? He's wearing full Guardian gear. "Orange Lantern."

"Mister Harper." I don't hate him. Nabu is an extremely intelligent being who makes his own choices. When those choices involve body jacking the father of a friend of mine… I'm an Orange Lantern. Taking it personally is exactly the correct response. James Harper on the other hand is an idiot who played the hand he was engineered to hold. True, it hurt more sentient beings and produced no useful benefit, but it did so because he lacks the mental apparatus to do anything _else_. Maybe he can learn to be something else.

"You knew, didn't you? Back at Cadmus when you came in with Superboy."

"Knew what?"

"That I was a clone as well. You grabbed me, scanned me with your ring and then you just left. I didn't start thinking about it until after Luthor fired me, but you knew."

"You're spiritually shallow and your genetics are extremely similar to those of Roy."

"Was 'Tomato' some kind of British insult?"

"No, it was a reference to the animated television series 'Big O', in which the entire population of the city are clones who think they're amnesiacs. The one man who wasn't is a senile tomato farmer and he constantly tells people what happened in a way no one else understands. Or something, it got a bit weird towards the end." I take a firm hold of my lantern and float the box softly to the ground. "It's probably best that you're here. Having multiple people with the same genes around might be confusing." I reflect on what I'm about to do. "More confusing." Deep breath. "Ophidian, quintessence waveform scan."

She touches my mind and immediately my awareness _oooh whaw_. This is never… Do Maltusians see the universe like this all of the time? Every mote of energy around me, every whiff that could be anything fully visible in every regard. I could stare at a single atom until the end of the universe and not even scratch the surface. Ophidian, I need to filter a little. I'm looking for matter that looks like _this_. For an instant the maddening detail fades a little, then it snaps back with billions of locations as I'm bombarded with every skin cell and hair that still has his DNA intact within it. No, more, _concentrations_. Show me the patterns of organs. Okay. That's.. probably him. In material terms there isn't much difference between a live person and a corpse, but in spiritual terms… Oh, I'm not going to remember this anyway. Just fix on the location…

And the beautiful picture fades away. Artemis catches me as I stumble backwards. "How long?"

"About three hours. You find him?"

I straighten up and nod. "Yep. We can pick him up when the world stops sparkling."

**28th January  
03:53 GMT +2**

The seven of us lie flat on our stomachs as we watch the entrance to the unaccountably in use disused missile silo. Does the Ukraine have nuclear missiles in my home parallel? I don't _think_ it does but I'm sure the Soviet Union would have stuck a few around. Presumably they took them all back after the Warsaw Pact broke up. Would they just have used aircraft based weapons and short ranged vehicle mounted missiles? Whatever. Here, they had at least one silo and someone is keeping the other Roy in it.

And there're robots. At least they aren't Bozos this time. No, this time we're up against someone clever enough to build autonomous turrets protected by rock, metal and force fields. I had assumed that Lex would be the one who took responsibility for hiding him but a disused nuclear silo is far more Savage's kind of thing.

"I'm counting seven hardpoints concealed behind the rock."

Robin and the Arrow clan have some sort of high end binoculars over their eyes. Wallace poked his goggles a few times but his built in visual equipment wasn't quite up to the task. As I watch he gives up on squinting and lifts them off his face. "Psst! Rob!"

"Kinda busy, KF."

"But-!" Artemis lowers her binoculars and prods him in the arm with them. "What?" She rolls her eyes and prods him again. "Would you quit-." He looks around and sees the binoculars. "Oh. Um, thanks." He takes them from her, hesitates for a moment and then raises them to his eyes.

Roy… Yes, I've never met the other one either. **Roy** taps my rerebrace. "Wanna look?"

"No need."

"You said you couldn't see inside."

"I said I can't _scan_ inside. My helmet's augmented visual modes work just fine."

"You think about sharing the tech?"

"Sure. You just need to live in it for two months making every movement you ever want the suit to replicate so that the system can learn how to not to pull you apart. I can have one ready for you in a couple of hours if you want."

"… Think I'll pass."

Robin lowers his binoculars. "No one's gone in or out. Haven't seen any guards other than the robots. Plans say there shouldn't be that much space inside."

Green Arrow shuffles uncomfortably. "No nukes though, right?"

"Not unless they were faking records back in the nineties. America and Russia were both pretty careful about making sure all of Ukraine's nuclear weapons got packed up."

"Well that's something. Any entrances apart from the front door?"

Wallace lowers Artemis' binoculars. "We could always open the _silo_ door."

"KF… Let's try not to start World War Three."

"Huh? O_oh_."

"I could… Try phasing through the metal. But, if they've got force fields and wards they can probably block phasing as well. Or at least detect it."

"Looks like we've got one roboturret each." Mister Queen manages a small smile. "Everyone bring their rocket launchers?"

"Left it in my other utility belt."

Roy scowls. "Would you take this seriously!?"

Mister Queen puts his right hand on Roy's shoulder. "Orange Lantern, could you take them from here?"

"Probably, but my constructs are both noticeable and distinctive."

Artemis pulls her binoculars back from Wallace. "I.. think I could probably hit them from here."

"Really? I know you're _strong_, but that's gotta be at least-"

She pulls an Unmaker from her quiver, one with my new smart fletching. "Can you program these?"

Ring, do it.

Compliance.

"Done."

"These are Orange Lantern's design. Fire them up high and if they're close enough they'll guide themselves down onto the target." She shuffles backwards and then rises to her knees.

Robin grins. "Isn't that sorta cheating?"

"_You_ wanna try it?" I send a filament out from my foot and over to hers, granting her augmented vision with wind speeds and directions. She blinks as she starts calculating her shot. "Thanks."

We spent quite a while practising this after she found out that she could now shoot so far that hitting the target was almost pure luck. Since she doesn't usually fight at that sort of range it isn't necessarily a problem, though I have had a few ideas about phased arrows that ignore wind and gravity until they reach the target. It's just that at that point you've pretty much got a bad micro missile launcher, the bows advantage of simplicity having been removed by the hideously sophisticated arrows. Maybe some sort of enchantment instead? I think I need to talk to a professional Atlantean mage who _isn't_ Sephtian. His work load is getting to be a bit much these days.

Mister Queen nods, then looks at Wallace. "Kid Flash, how fast can you cover that distance?"

He lowers his goggles. "About eight seconds."

"Here." He passes Wallace one of his own Unmakers. "Artemis won't be able to hit the main entrance from here. Once the turrets are down, get over there and hit the door with this. Whoever's in there's going to know they're under attack, but the longer it takes them to work out who's doing it the better. Try and get there as soon as the last robot turret is destroyed."

"Got it."

"Orange Lantern, once Kid Flash hits the door take the rest of us to the entrance and get yourself inside. We've really got no idea where-." He pauses. "Where**Speedy** is, so concentrate on finding whoever's running the place and take them down. Robin, you're on recon. Head into the silo after him. Your priority is to find Speedy but **be careful**. If you meet heavy resistance, fall back and we'll take 'em down with arrows. Remember, there won't be a lotta room to manoeuvre once you get inside."

I think Mister Harper Senior is frowning under that helmet. "I'm not sure sending a child in first is such a good idea."

"Yeah, well, he's a computer expert, he's memorised files on every supervillain the League, Team or the Justice Society ever encountered and he's bullet-." He glances at me. "Resistant, thanks to the, um, the Formula. He's got the best chance of surviving a fight with anyone he runs into inside. Roy and I will follow on just behind. Artemis, back Orange Lantern up."

Wallace waits for a second. "What about me?"

Mister Queen winces. "You and Guardian are in reserve." Wallace looks pained. "Look, there's gunna be a lotta locked doors and narrow corridors in there. You wouldn't have room to dodge properly or build up speed. I need you and Jim making sure no one gets behind us, alright?" Wallace nods, his truculence under control. At least Mister Queen isn't asking him to run to the other side of the country for this. "Keep your radios open and call out contacts as you find them. Artemis, you about ready?" She nods and draws her first arrow. Wallace rises up into a sprinter's starting pose and the rest of us come up to a crouch. "Okay, **loose**."

**28th January  
03:58 GMT +2**

I watch as the first arrow drops towards its target. "All on target. Last impact in twelve, first in two, one."

Crumbler technology doesn't cause an explosion and at this range we can't hear it as the surrounding rock gives way.

"First and second are well hit. Partial on third, appears disabled."

I watch as the rock covering falls away from the remaining robot turrets. Hatches open to allow them out just as the rest of Artemis' volley slams home.

"Fourth well hit, fifth hit crosswinds and missed, six well hit, seventh-" The turret sprouts legs and lunges for freedom as the arrow flies past it into its hidey hole. "-evaded. It's mobile and looking for targets." There's a blast of air as Wallace launches himself forwards. "Creating a distraction." As with all the best supervillain bases this silo has a minefield. Wallace could run over them when moving at full speed but why take the risk? A prod from a subterranean filament is easily enough to detonate them and draw the attention of whoever is inside while he dashes around the side.

"Good shooting Artemis." The surviving turrets take positions, brace and then open fire into the explosions with violet lasers. Power level..? Yeah, don't get hit by those. Mister Queen nods at me. "Get ready to-."

"Dodge."

Wallace turns his direct charge into a jinking run as one of the robots picks up on him and takes a shot. Pulse fire rather than continuous beam, the laser is easily fast enough to hit him. Shame about the servos aiming it. Wallace suddenly switches from evading to sprinting directly forwards, leaps and throws one of Robin's Crumbler equipped… Um. Robinrangs? At each of them before landing in a roll, recovering and finishing his sprint to the door. Both strike home, causing the central sections of the robots to collapse. Wallace stabs the front door with his Unmaker as the power cell on the robot on the left detonates in a brilliant white explosion!

Are we in? Yes, there's a breach! I transition the group across the distance, depositing all but myself and Robin on the outside. We appear inside a narrow cylindrical corridor. No alarms, I note. Maybe this place is just being used for storage?

Robin gets his bearings almost immediately, scans the steel tubes running along the wall with his arm computer and rips one of them free, revealing the cables inside. He plugs in his computer as I turn, create a small railgun construct and Unmake the rest of the outer door before conducting a ring scan of the place. No, each section must be warded individually. Tiresome.

"The layout hasn't changed. I'll hit the storeroom."

"I'll head to command. Armour." The familiar orange plates materialise around me as I fly off down the corridor. This place is too far from anywhere for commuting or regular resupply. It might _well_ be just for storage. Rings, scan for -I slam an Unmaker into the next security door and then send in a construct, shoving the barrier apart and crushing the motors inside the wall.- biological matter.

No recent sample detected. Best matches on partial samples available.

A bunch of people who-. There's a force field emitter in the corridor ahead of me, another slightly further ahead of that and a… Ooh, a plasma initiator. Haven't seen one of those on Earth before. Not a terrible trap I suppose. I shove a razor construct into the wall and sever it from it's power source. "There are defensive force fields in the walls."

"But they go down to Crumble-tech."

"And the plasma weapon?"

I hear a bang. "Not.. so.. much. My way back's blocked. I'll keep going. Try and shut it down from Command."

"Right." A bunch of people who _should_ have been in a nuclear missile silo. True AI's are rare. I suppose… The Brain could have set this up in person if he left Mallah at home.

"Contact. Robots. They look like spheres with arms and legs." Doesn't ring any bells. "Very agile and-. _Ugh_. Very sharp claws."

I accelerate, shooting a hole in the next door with Crumbler rounds and transitioning to the other side.

"Green Arrow to Robin. Looks like the plasma weapon destroyed itself. We'll be there to back you up in a sec."

The wall ahead of me glows a faint blue. The shields around the command section must have activated as soon as the attack started. Scan? Okay. Command is now isolated. Whoever's inside is cut off from the outside. The generator must be inside. They're relying on their robots to deal with the intruders.

A small hatch opens in the wall just behind me and four metallic spheres roll out. A small section on the top of each rises slightly, revealing their optic sensors. Eight other panels detach on the ends of robotic arms, and that's about as far as they get before my railgun turret shoots each of them in turn with low power Crumblers. I don't bother turning around as the ring scans them. Interesting force field knife thing on the claws but they aren't really anything special.

Okay, so there's no way for them to _know_ that their robots have won. There's a good chance they wouldn't be able to escape with the force field in place… Well, okay, a Boom Tube or.. some form of magic would probably do it, but those aren't exactly widespread. And if they _have_ those, then they're already gone. I load the larger Crumbler rounds. No reason not to blast through, but if they're in there and are planning to wait a period of time and _then_ teleport… Rings, teleport jammer and interdiction-

The barrier drops.

-field. I shoot immediately, my rounds taking out the blast door and a good chunk of the wall around it. The room inside looks like a cross between a mechanised surgical suite and a robotics factory. On the far side of the room a humanoid figure standing on a raised dais raises its right arm to wave me goodbye before tapping a button on a small control panel.

Teleport blocked.

They're wearing gold coloured power armour, though it's really only visible at the calves, forearms and facemask. The rest is covered in purple robes and a green cape, an ensemble that makes little sense in an isolated bunker, to say nothing of a hazardous workshop.

They press the button again, a little harder this time.

Teleport blocked.

Colour scheme plus robots strongly suggests Doctor Cyber, one of Diana's nutters. Thought she'd been a bit quiet. Can't scan through her armour. "Everyone, I have encountered Doctor Cyber. I'm taking her into custody." Ring, interface with the workshop's computers. Take everything.

Compliance.

This time her finger goes through the pad. "Rragh!" Her left arm rises and a holoscreen appears over her forearm, showing a face I know. "Truggs! You promised me safe passage!"

"Sorry Doctor. I-I'd really like t'help, I _really_ would, but he's jamming everything I got." His attention shifts and he waves to me. "Hey Orange."

"Truggs." Ring, can we shut down the other robots from here? No, all pre-programmed with no remote control. I attach filaments to her armour and yank her off her feet and towards me. "She'll call you back."

"I'll be waiting!"

"Doctor Cyber-." Violet lasers fire from her palms, striking my construct armour. I create manacles and turn her arms aside while jamming razor sharp needle constructs into the mechanism. A second later -and with a neat line burned into the walls of the workshop- the lasers cut out. Ring, hard interface with the armour. Did we get anything about Truggs from the computer?

Compliance. Negative. No logs recorded.

"Pretty much finished up down here Oh El."

I switch to internal only. "Glad to hear it, Kid Flash."

"And we got Roy-. Ah, Speedy-Roy too. He's in a pod like the one they kept Superboy in." He pauses. "Hey, you called her 'Doctor Cyber'."

"Yes. She has a doctorate and her surname is Cyber."

"Really? What're the odds of _that_?"

"About the same as an ice themed criminal actually having the surname 'Freeze'. I'm going to try and find out what she was doing here."

"Okay. You have fun with that."

External only. What does Doctor Cyber want? Oh, is _that_ all. "Doctor, I wish to make a trade." Ring, decouple her faceplate.

The golden metal mask falls free and the woman behind gasps before scowling at me. "_Happy_ now?" The left side of her face bears heavy burn scars from one of her previous encounters with Diana. Her once jet black hair has long since faded to grey and both of her eyes are cybernetic. Even with the low rates of supervillain execution Diana's agelessness means that she can expect to see virtually everyone she fights die eventually. And some of them take that rather personally.

"I will trade a full heal on your body for your unedited account of your dealings with Nylor Truggs and a full explanation of how Speedy ended up down below."

Her scowl turns to disgust. "I have no reason-." I touch my left gauntlet to the right side of her face, disintegrate the cybernetic and recreate a natural eye. She gasps as I pull back my hand, spasmodically blinking her eye as she tries to re-adapt.

"I can also ensure that you go to prison somewhere slightly better than the Ukraine. Do you think we can come to terms?"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

**28th January**  
**17:14 GMT -4**

Orana turns aside Match's wrist, pulls his across her and slams her right elbow into his face without letting go. He flies backwards, pulling her off her feet and causing her to reflexively loosen her grip. Hmm. She adapted quickly to the realities of super strength combat but her instincts are deeply entrenched.

Mister Queen looks her over appreciatively. "Where'd you find _her_?"

"Themyscira."

Diana watches the fighters carefully. "Can I assume that you didn't consult anyone before empowering her?"

"Naturally. Except her, of course." I turn my head in her direction as Orana tries to get close enough to grapple in order to circumvent her opponent's greater speed. To make things fairer we let her have her aero disc equipped boots but she really _hasn't_ taken to using them in combat. "But don't worry; she's still fulfilling her duty as a guard. Queen Hippolyta has no grounds for complaint."

"What did you give her?"

"A quick physical tune up, copy of whatever it is the Terror Twins have and Divine Awakening. Then-" I wince as Match uses her hold of him as a pivot to strike her directly in the diaphragm with his left fist. Her face tenses slightly but otherwise she shows no reaction. "-standard Apokoliptian armour with aero discs. I used a similar decorative scheme to the one I used for yours."

She glances at where Orana's armour sits awaiting its mistress. Less gold than Diana's, more red and blue. "I can see that."

"Which you never wear." No, no, don't whinge at her. "You mentioned that you wanted more women in the League. Give her a little longer to adapt and she'll be a prime candidate."

She nods. "How did you persuade her to leave Themyscira?"

"I demonstrated the relative effectiveness of bows against AK forty sevens. She came to believe that she needed more power to meaningfully defend Themyscira. And appropriate training which she can't get back home."

Match and Orana are grappling in the air now. Mister Queen frowns slightly. "I don't remember being offered any extras when you used your 'Awakening' thing on me."

I nod slowly. "I…" Think before speaking. "I wasn't sure exactly what would happen as a result of using the Awakening on Humans. Now that I have some experimental data, I can compare it to what Desaad's records say _should_ happen. As simply as I can put it…" There actually _isn't_ a simple way to put it, not without sacrificing a great deal of information. "The Awakening uses local magic to build additional.. _stuff_ on your soul. These.. extra bits.. add a supernatural component to actions you can already perform, but… More extraordinary skills and abilities are magnified first. In the case of Barda and myself, our strength and fortitude were our most notable characteristics and so they were most improved. In the case of my brother Scott, his passion for liberation and skill as an escapologist were increased instead. He's stronger than a baseline Human of his musculature would be, but only about as strong as Kaldur used to be."

"So Artemis and I get super archery but we miss out on super strength."

"Sort of. If I'd had the Terror Formula beforehand I _could_ have used it on you, but then the Awakening would most likely have made you stronger and tougher **instead** of letting you do what Tao does. It… The process of adding to _you_ is also limited by the availability of mana locally. In a relatively low magic locale such as this, the changes would occur only fairly slowly. Artemis has to strain to blink her arrows and hasn't seen-" I think back to the conversation we had during Wallace's last test. "-much in the way of physical changes."

He nods. "Guess that explains Zatanna. How fast is _she_-" He nods at Orana as Match attempts to break her choke hold by repeatedly slamming her into the floor. Nice to see he's got over the flying-the-way-you're-facing hang up so common to fliers. "-improving?"

"It's hard to measure. Themyscira is a relatively high magic environment but I don't have anyone to whom I can directly compare her."

"Is that why Wally got a whole lot faster?"

"In part. I think the Awakening may also have 'straightened out' the errors in his attempt to replicate the Garrick Formula, so a good deal of his added speed would simply be a result of _that_.

Diana smiles at me. "Barry asked me to pass on his thanks. That was a very nice thing to do for him."

"Heh." Mister Queen looks down at the floor for a moment. "Yeah. And I bet his parents like the fact that he's not eating them out of house and home any more as well."

I wave my right hand dismissively. "I had no way to know that that would be the precise result. I firmly believe that the Garrick Formula must be alchemical in the way in which it applies its affect. It's the only thing I can think of that explains why his abilities increased so much faster than Artemis'."

"I don't suppose there's any way to speed up **my** process, is there? Not that I'm _complaining_, exactly…"

"In theory, direct mana infusions could work. If you're interested, Kaldur and I could set something up. If we increase background levels by tenfold rather than just dumping gigathaums directly into you there shouldn't really be any added risk."

He nods. "Hmm. Think about it."

"Alright!" Diana walks forwards as Match and Orana prepare to go at each other again. "That will do for now." They're both panting, and they keep watching each other very carefully as they straighten up. "Take ten minutes and then you can get your armor on for the next session."

Orana heads towards myself and Mister Queen. Her armour _can_ be put on manually but it's far easier to ring it on instead. Mister Queen nods as she approaches. "Impressive work. Grayven tells me you're thinking of trying out for the Justice League."

Orana checks him over once, examining him for threat potential and weapons. "Yes?"

"You must have.. fought a lot of interesting people. Coming from Themyscira, I mean."

"Yes?"

Mister Queen leans towards me. "She speaks English, right?"

"Ah, sort of. Ixy only dumped the lexicon into her head a few days ago. She's still processing it."

Orana makes a momentary frown. "Tell him I can understand everything he says."

"She says that she can understand you perfectly well. Would the two of you.. excuse me for a moment? I need to talk to Diana about something."

Mister Queen shrugs and Orana nods. Good. She needs to get used to spending time around men socially if she's serious about learning superheroing. Plus, I really do need to talk to Diana about Niko's situation. It just doesn't sit right with me that she's going to have to spend the rest of her life dodging the police for murdering her rapist father. I amble over to where she's checking Match's nose.

"It's fine, Mom." She gently prods it. "Ow!"

"If you need to spend some time under a sunlamp we can put this off or ask Kon to do it instead."

"No." Match shakes his head. "M'gann and Kon are going out tonight. And the new armor includes sunstones anyway. And a helmet." And a rather clever faceplate that allows him to fire out with heat vision without compromising armour integrity. Thank you Sub-commander Karsta Wor-Ul.

"If you're sure."

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but I rather need to speak to Diana for a moment."

He nods. "Sure. I'll go grab some water."

She frowns slightly at me as he walks away. "What is it?"

I wait until Match has taken a few steps towards the table before erecting a sound baffle. "I have.. a moral quandary I was hoping that you could help me resolve."

There's a faint expression of amused disbelief on her face. "You want **advice** from me?"

"What can I say, all those sessions with Guy are really helping." They actually _are_, and I know that she knows that I'm telling the truth.

"Are you sure you don't want to rush ahead and do things your own way?"

"This time, no. There aren't any wide issues at stake and I don't have a personal investment. I'm trying to do something for someone else, and I'm not the best at predicting how other people will react."

"Very well. What do you want to ask me?"

"I want to ask about when it's okay to kill someone. How theoretical do you want me to keep this?"

**28th January  
17:19 GMT -4**

She studies my face for a moment and then looks slightly to the side. "How theoretical do I _need_ to keep it?"

"You don't need to at all. But… You might find out things that you would find convenient to be able to deny knowing about later."

"Hera." She thinks for a moment. "Perhaps you should just avoid mentioning names."

"Very well." Hm. "Under American law, killing a person can be legal in a number of circumstances. I'm aware of two instances I wanted to discuss with you; killing in the defence of oneself-" Niko Parish. "-and killing in the defence of another." Mister Scott, Mister Garrick and Doctor Knight. Had to check my facts there, but as far as I can tell it happened here just as I remember it.

"For a civilian, yes. We're held to slightly higher standards."

"You killed during the Second World War. And-" I raise my left hand slightly in a warding gesture. "-before you say it, I don't accept the idea that war has separate rules. And even if it did, Themyscira wasn't threatened and Queen Hippolyta hadn't declared war against the Axis. Sure, the Nazis were unarguably the bad guys but there's no way you could have known the full extent-."

"I didn't." She pauses, reflecting on the most goodthinkful way to present **me** with the information. "Do you want to know _why_ I allied myself with the Allies?" I nod. "When I reached the Greek mainland I found Greece unified and fighting invading foreigners. As far as I was concerned that meant that I was obliged to stand with them. Once Greece fell I had intended to stay and aid the resistance but… There was an American-."

"Steven Trevor."

She nods. "He persuaded me to go to America instead. As for why I killed Germans, Italians and Bulgarians during their invasion, it was because I could think of no reason not to. They were foreigners and the Greeks were **my** people. Having missed out on so much history after Themyscira withdrew from the world I though that a unified Greece was remarkable in itself. Certainly that it was worth fighting for. I was also much younger and hungry for personal glory. The loss of life didn't really concern me."

"Not at all?"

"Seeing the first corpses was a shock. I'd never seen someone die violently before. Seeing a Stuka squadron machine gun ships taking part in the evacuation was a rude awakening to the reality of war. Aside from that, no. My mothers never sugar coated the nature of battle."

I nod. "And if you were in the position of your younger self now?"

"Now, I know the results of the occupation as well as what the Nazi's were doing in their own territory. I think if anything I would resist more vigorously."

"You would still kill them?"

"Yes."

"And yet -and I'm not trying to start a fight here, I just want to understand- you complained when I delivered Zard and co. to the Chinese. I mean, I knew they'd murdered thousands at least. And they got a trial out of it."

"Because the attack wasn't ongoing. They'd been stopped-."

"Until next time. It would hardly have been the first time they'd been 'stopped'."

She nods. "And my younger self would have agreed with you. My **current** self is more concerned about the fallout in international relations and in relations between the American government and the League. If America comes to believe -rightly or wrongly- that we will remove supervillains to jurisdictions whose processes we prefer it is quite possible that they will be slower to call on our aid."

Hm. She's sort of got a point there. "I still think.. _statistically_, my solution was the one is most likely to prevent the most Human hardship."

"Did you include the consequences of intelligence agencies withholding information they fear we might share with their rivals?"

"Yes, but that's nothing we can't just take."

"Which would worsen relations further."

"If they found out about it." I shrug. "And if they do? Go under them. Appeal to the population directly. Be open about your reasons and relations with government bodies."

A wry smile. "I thought you wanted to talk about murder, not about the League's political policies?"

Got a bit off topic there. I nod. "Yes, you're right. It probably all ties in, but… Alright, first example. A severely provoked and traumatised person stabs their abuser to death."

"I've supported-."

"_But_, the killer flees the scene. When police are called they easily identify them as the killer but have no evidence of the abuse that led up to the killing. The killer evades them and eventually builds a new identity." Niko Parish looks only a little like Mina Byrne. Hair naturally black rather than blonde, skin a couple of tones darker and a slight alteration of facial features. She's even a little taller. Plus, the wings… Running a genetic analysis on an Un-Man is an exercise in futility. Haven't checked her finger prints… "Now, **you** could just truth lasso the killer, compare the account of the abuse to the level the law demands and make a ruling. Apply a lesser sentence or acquit. Unfortunately, the courts don't accept that as evidence. The killer is happy with their new life and has no desire to take a risk to prove their version of events and the physical evidence that would support their claims has long since gone. Should a person in my position arrest them, try to work out a deal with investigators or just leave it be?"

Her eyes flick downwards as she thinks it through. "In this situation, are you _sure_ that the evidence can't be recovered?"

"Assume that I've done a thorough ring scanning and run the results by Father Box." Which I _have_. Bit disappointing but not really surprising.

"What was the level of abuse?"

"Repeated rapes over a period of years. The individual in question was below the age of-."

"Do nothing."

"Are you sure?"

"A jury can only make their decision based on admissible evidence. If the evidence which would lead to the result that you know to be correct under the law cannot be brought forward…" She nods. "I believe that the correct decision would be to take no action."

I'd hoped that she would have a better idea. Ah well. "It would be easier if truth compulsion magic and telepathic intercepts were admissible as evidence."

"The wo-. The **person** in question might prefer not to give testimony."

"I suppose…"

"It would still have been better for them to seek help before they killed their abuser. I work with charities-."

"Which fund refuges, yes. Personally, I find the violent ending more satisfying." She doesn't respond. "In my second example, a criminal is captured but threatens to send other members of his organisation after the families of the individuals making the arrest. Once he makes it clear that he knows names and addresses, they simultaneously raise their firearms and kill him."

"Members of organised criminal gangs seldom do that. They know that escalating would just result in more police attention and disrupt their operations further."

"Let's assume that the individual in question is a malevolent supervillain who just wants to spread the pain around."

She shakes her head. "No. A police officer has to follow the rules or they risk losing the public trust. They should have kept the arrest quiet while they got their families to a place of safety and then gone after the rest of the gang. They could have used that situation to lure the gang members into an ambush."

"Does your answer change if the people in question are superheroes with otherwise intact secret identities?"

"No. It would be harder for them, but coming out into the open would still be better than committing murder. We're held to account for our actions so much less than the police are that maintaining our standards as individuals is even more important."

"If that was a dig about Napier, I'm not even slightly sorry."

"Were _you_ referring to the Joker?"

"I? I wasn't referring to anyone." I dismiss the barrier around us. "Thank you, Diana. That was.. helpful."

"I'm glad that you felt able to come to me. Remember that if you need help in future, I'll always be here."

"Thank you. I will."

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

**29th January  
08:58 GMT -4**

"I'm not saying it's _bad_, I'm just saying it's not one I'd have picked." I think about that for a moment. "In your place, I mean."

Tula gives me a mildly miffed look as we head towards the training room. "Why? What's wrong with 'Aquagirl'? Kaldur uses Aqua**lad**."

"He.. picked that before I met him. The problem is… How old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"Okay, so in Atlantean terms you're already young adult. I'd describe you as a young woman rather than a girl, but you can get away with it due to the customary infantalisation of the female gender."

She blinks in surprise. "What?"

"But how about when you're eighteen? Or twenty one? How about when you're _fifty_?"

"Can't I just change it?"

"If it's under five syllables we'll call you whatever you want, but this will also be your 'superheroic identity'. The way people in public who've never met you in a social setting _think_ of you."

She shakes her head. "I don't really understand why I even need one. It's not as if I have an identity to conceal."

"You don't **need** need one. It's really more tradition. I mean, we don't have formal ranks and there _are_ multiple superheroes with the same personal or family names-."

"And three Green Lanterns."

"**Four** Green Lanterns. Urp, four Green Lanterns on Earth, there are thousands spread out across the galaxy. And yes, saying 'Green Lantern' will usually result in someone asking 'which one'. If you've been told their name you say 'Lantern-" I wave my hands forwards. "-whatever', and if you haven't their formal designations include 'A, B or C'."

"…longer than _that_."

Incredulity this time. "A, B… Or C?"

"She gave testimony under the influence of Wonder Woman's Truth Lasso. She was not involved in the initial kidnapping and has cooperated with authorities."

I create constructs showing their faces. "No one uses 'B' because Guy Gardner's name is public knowledge. But yes."

"Kaldur, she had _**killer**_. _**Robots**_."

"So… What's the fourth one called?"

"Occupying a nuclear missile silo and using robots for defence is not -in itself- a breach of the law."

"Usually something along the lines of 'Green Lantern, you know, that Green Lantern who used to be in the Justice Society'."She blinks. "He's retired, it's fine."

"Well it _should_ be."

"So what's Batman like?"

"On a mission or in a briefing? Serious. Dour. Focused. He's not trying to be a drill sergeant, we're all highly motivated volunteers here. If you ever go on a mission with him don't expect _any_ non mission related conversation at all."

"You could always take it up with the Ukrainian Parliament."

"Today, chances are he'll stroll in through the Zeta Tube, start the briefing once he gets in front of us and then leave us to it."

"Will this other Red Arrow bloke be joining in with the team?"

"Does he do training sessions? Kaldur told me that he is an expert martial artist."

"That will be up to him. He has a great deal of readjustment to do."

"Yes, but when it's his turn to run our training sessions he usually focuses on criminal investigation. If you're really interested in learning a surface world martial art you're better off talking to Canary. Or Robin, actually."

We stroll out of the passageway and into the training room. Gosh, a near full gathering. No Red Arrow.. or Speedy, and no Troia, but there's still twelve of us. Seventeen when the **named** pets are factored in. Fatty, Tubbs and the rest are happy in the original ring until there's something to eat but Teekl, Sphere and Wolf are in attendance. Wolf's quite a bit bigger than she was when we first picked her up, more like a small adult than a puppy. I note that Teekl is trying to maintain size parity with her not-so-kittenish foster kitten.

Tula pulls ahead and greets Garth with a kiss. Kaldur doesn't seem all that bothered until you look inside him. Bothered and bothered by the fact that he's bothered. Were I a less polite man I might make a 'more fish in the sea' comment. I realise.. that suggesting he meet other girls would be a reasonable move but _I_ don't have any idea how to help with that. Number of romantic relationships _I've_ had…

Actually, who _could_ give him advice? Diana's celibate, Alan's would be 'don't marry a supervillain', Guy.. hasn't mentioned Ms Olafsdotter, though we've mostly been talking about work stuff. I should probably ask him about that. Kon and M'gann… Neither of them have shown an interest in anyone else. Zatanna's as busy as I am, at least. Probably more so with school work. Who do I know who's supposed to be good with… New Roy! Kaldur the only one of us who really knew him and he was supposed to be some sort of great Lothario in the comics. Wasn't he? And he owes me for the new arm.

Wallace returns his attention to Robin. "Batman tell you anything about where he's sending us?"

Robin thinks for a moment. "He's been getting worried about what's happening in Cairo-."

_"Worried?"_

"Well. Y'know. _Concerned_ about what President Muhunnad's going to do. He's not leaving even though Black Adam-."

"Teth Adom. I didn't spend months correcting news reporters for you to call him by Theo's name."

"Right. Sorry. Anyway, the rebels have said they'll let him go safely and he _isn't_, so either he's got some sort of plan to turn things around or he's just desperately clinging on."

"Ahh..." Raquel looks at her watch. "Is Batman… Late?"

Kon shrugs. "Only a couple of minutes."

There's a sort of awkward general pausing. Is Batman being slightly late a **big** thing? I don't… It's not like I've spent _massive_amounts of time around him. Wasn't there a line in one of the Nolan films that he generally doesn't respond to the Bat signal because he's busy working a case? I'm sure that-.

"Recognised, Batman, zero two."

Still a bit of a relief, though. We form up as he leaves the Tube and heads for the lecture space.

"The Justice League has just received information of strange energy broadcasts coming from the sea bed near the Bering Strait." A holographic map appears marking the spot. It's actually just to the north near the Chukchi Plain, where the water starts to get deeper. No real problem for.. most of us? Has Rob learned a water breathing spell yet? Ugh, I've sort of taken my eye off the ball there. "Given the nature of the signal-" Wait a second. "-we suspect it to be-" Ring, overlay with those Maltusian energy signatures you picked up when we first arrived. "-an alien spacecraft." Ooh poop. Ring, scan that ship.

Wallace half-raises his right hand. "So… Did it crash?"

"If it had we would simply hand the matter over to either the government of the crew's species or to the Green Lantern Corps. But from what little we know it looks as if the ship has been there for some time. Since previous geological surveys of the area didn't detect anything out of the ordinary it most likely had some form of stealth technology which has only recently failed. Until we get more information we won't know where the ship came from-."

"Um. Sorry Sir. It's Maltusian."

**29th January  
09:03 GMT -4**

Batman looks at me for a moment. He doesn't blink, he doesn't move, just looks. Then he takes a breath. "Would you care to expand on that?"

"Um. When I first arrived on this Earth I started looking for ways to charge the-" I raise my left hand. "-ring. Aside from the.. personal lanterns owned by members of the Green Lantern Corps.. it.. detected various other things. The **other** Green Lantern's damaged personal lantern, the Star Sapphire, a couple of Qwardian weapons from two eight one four A's last encounter… Once I had a lantern I pretty much stopped worrying about it. I didn't even know there was a ship there.. but.. um.. there are at least three Maltusian or Maltusian style energy containment units on that ship." Or at least there _were_. "I think. Hang on. Ring, check that."

"One vessel detected."

Batman nods slowly. "That would explain the decrease in its ability to hide itself."

My team mates are looking rather like we've left them behind. Kaldur asks first. "Who are the Maltusians?"

"Sir, may I?" Batman nods. Ring, grab the holoscreen.

"Classified information requested. Higher authorisation-"

Stewart ring, we've talked about your unhelpful attitude before. Knock it off.

"This ring will comply with the directive."

"Maltusians." I use Stewart ring's ruthlessly plundered historical database to generate an image of what Maltus and its inhabitants looked like in the old days. "These people are basically the luckiest species ever. Well above humanoid norms for intelligence and early on in their history they merged with a species of semi-sentient bacteria that gave them steadily increasing levels of reality warping power. I've seen… Some of their records claim they were the first sentient species in this universe and if that isn't true I've seen no clear counter evidence."

"What became of them?"

"Nothing. They're still around. Sort of. Since they didn't really need each other for survival related purposes, they only associated with each other when they wanted to. Maltusians who shared an ideology formed cliques… There was some sort of biological weapon that reinforced that with physical isolation, but that really just reinforced a pre-existing trend. The symbiotes.. gave them an awareness of certain types of supernatural force." I think. Given the vast swathe of time their gradual change covered the Stewart rings contents were regrettably brief. I suppose there was only anything there at all in case Lantern Stewart had to deal with some legacy of that era, not to assuage the curiosity of historical researchers. I have the holoscreen show the rainbow.

Robin's eyes widen. "Power ring colors! You're saying.. the Guardians of the Universe are Maltusians?"

"The Guardians-" I bring up a picture. Apparently this parallel has male and female Guardians. "-are one faction. Then you've got the Zamarons-" Another image. The faces of senior Zamarons are a bit creepy. No noses, oddly shaped holes in the face for eyes and remarkably blank faces. Younger ones seem to have slightly more conventional features.

"And the Controllers, right?"

"Yep. And probably groups I've never heard of and plenty who aren't aligned to a larger group."

Artemis looks from the oldest image to the more recent ones. "Why do they all look so different?"

"Their bodies aren't exactly flesh anymore. It's -at least in part- a manifestation of **what** they are. Guardians have tiny bodies and big heads because they value cold intellect most highly."

Wallace nods. "Like Vulcans." Artemis appears to consider lamping him, but decides against it.

"Actually, no. Vulcans can get dangerously unstable if they don't practice rigorous self control. Guardians… Okay, you know how I said using the orange light could alter my personality if I wasn't very careful?" Nods from my longer serving team mates. "Imagine if I'd taken no such care and lived for thousands of years. Easing off on the control would probably make them _more_ stable. No one part of the whole is complete by itself. Cut out a chunk of **you** and you'll get a bit weird."

Batman's gaze is a little distant. "Do you know why they have a ship on the Earth's seabed?"

I shake my head. "Not really. I could make guesses, but that's about it."

"So what's the problem." Wallace shrugs. "Call in the Green Lanterns and have them tow it back to Maltus-"

"Oa."

"-Oa."

"Unfortunately, things aren't that simple." Batman touches a few buttons. "The ship is in international waters between Russia and the United States. In addition, sources in the Russian security services indicate that the land on the Russian side of the Straits is being used as a testing ground for their special weapons development programs."

Garth looks blank. "Special weapons?"

"Controllable superpowers, power armour.. and xenotech research."

"Both countries would be extremely eager to acquire the ship if they knew of its existence. Neither has a superior claim to the other. The League is concerned about what happens if both sides discover its existence and pursue their claim aggressively."

Raquel turns to Garth and Tula. "Doesn't Atlantis want it?"

Garth shrugs. "It would be interesting, but Atlantean territory stops thirty kilometres from the US coast on the Atlantic side. We don't have a legitimate claim to it and our magic based technology is so different from what the surface world uses we probably couldn't do much with it anyway."

Kaldur nods. "Do either the American or Russian navies know that the ship is there?"

"We don't think so, not at the moment. The League is prepared to evacuate the ship over the objections of both countries if necessary but we would rather it not come to that. One of the team's tasks will be boarding the ship without being detected and assessing the possibility of repairing it. Your aim will be to either restore its stealth systems or preferably restoring both its stealth and its capacity for space travel."

Kaldur frowns very slightly. "Now that we know the craft's point of origin, would it not make sense to assign the task to a Green Lantern?"

"Justice League members are public figures. Our movements are monitored by various agencies around the world. If one of the Green Lanterns were to be seen heading in the direction of an alien signal and no report was submitted to the United Nations, questions would be raised that it would be more convenient not to answer."

Another nod. "Understood. We will begin planning our approach."

"Recovery of the craft isn't the only mission I will be setting you." Ooh? That's new. Batman presses another button and I see an all too familiar image of Cairo. "The League is becoming increasingly concerned with the state of the remaining government controlled enclaves in Kahndaq. The involvement of the superhuman 'Teth Adom'-" I smile slightly. "-has made several countries extremely concerned. The League hasn't yet been formally asked to intervene, and we would much rather it not come to that. The team is to infiltrate the Presidential Palace-" An image comes up. "-and plant listening devices in sensitive areas, as well as perform general reconnaissance of the city to assess the general wellbeing of its inhabitants." He looks everyone in the eye before continuing. "Given the team's success last year I feel that it is appropriate to give you a greater degree of freedom in the planning of team missions. The order in which you perform these missions will be a team decision. Alternately, you may decide that the team's increased size means that you can complete both at once." He turns to walk back towards the Zeta Tube. "I will expect to see a mission plan within four hours."

**29th January  
09:17 GMT -4**

"Dibs on the spaceship." I look around the room we've co-opted for our mission planning, grinning excitedly at each of my team mates.

Robin smirks. "I don't think it works that way, Oh El."

"You're just jealous you didn't think of it."

There's a very quiet amused-sounding sigh from next to me where Kaldur sits in the boss chair. "I think it would be more productive to consider each team member's skill set and how it could be applied to either mission, rather than allocating people on the basis of which they would prefer. I will also point out that we are by no means required to complete both missions simultaneously."

Wallace holds out his right arm, palm up. "Aqualad, there's twelve of us. That's gotta be enough for two teams."

Robin nods. "Staking out the Palace just to work out when we _could_ get in could take the whole weekend by itself, and we've got no idea who else knows about the ship. Neither mission can really wait."

Zatanna grimaces. "And some of us have school on Monday."

Kaldur looks around the room. "Very well. If we are to tackle both missions simultaneously it would be wise to decide who will be assigned to each team."

Ring, picture please. The hologram projector in the central table activates. In the centre it displays headshots of each of us, pets included. On the left is a picture of Kahndaq and on the right one of the exterior of the spaceship. It must have been beautiful when it was completely intact but a huge chunk has been carved out of the hull nearly cutting off the rear third. At least I.. think it's the rear. The normal undersea life has tried with only partial success to colonise the outer surface and there's been more than enough time for silt to build up around it. From _that_ it looks like it hasn't been down there all that long. But why would there be a Maltusian ship near Earth in the recent past? That sort of splashdown could have triggered nuclear Armageddon if it had happened during the Cold War. The Guardians couldn't have been the ones who sent it because if they wanted to know what we were up to they'd just have sent a Green Lantern.

Rob looks around. "Does.. anyone here speak.. Kahndaqi Arabic?"

Robin and Artemis nod. M'gann tilts her head to the side. "No, but I can fake it with telepathy."

I shift the hologram to the side and add a diagram of the Kahndaqi Palace to the display. "Getting into the Palace is going to be _very_ difficult."

Wallace points to the image. "Haven't you spent, like, loads of time in Kahndaq with Ad… _Om_?" I nod. "Wouldn't that make you perfect for the Kahndaq mission?"

"Nope. _Because_ I'm a known associate of Teth Adom, pretty much everyone on the government side knows my face. They see _me_, they start shooting hostages."

"Host..idg..es..?" Garth looks a bit lost. Oh, of course, I doubt that made the news in Poseidonis.

Kaldur leans forwards and presses a few buttons on the display. The image of the Palace disappears and is replaced with some news footage of Adom from when the uprising started. "The Kahndaqi government is -or perhaps I should say _was_\- harsh and repressive. When Orange Lantern aided Teth Adom in taking control of the body of the man who stole his powers through ritual magic, he sought to liberate his people from their control." He presses another button and a new image showing the country appears with major cities, towns and geographical features marked out. "The focal point of the uprising was the city of Shiruta, then it spread to several other cities." The date in the corner of the map rolls forwards as the area where the government has lost control increases.

Garth nods. "I'm going to assume that the government wasn't willing to accept that."

"No. At first they tried having the police and their ministry of the interior thugs suppress it. The police either joined the uprising or… Well, most of them got killed. There was a **lot** of anger. Then they tried the military, and... That was when they found out that Adom wasn't averse to killing people -even lots of people- if it was for the greater good."

Robin nods. "Superheroes… Superheroes don't' kill people. Not if there's another option."

I shake my head. "I refer you to the Second World War. Remember the All Star Squadron?"

Kon nods. "Mom killed plenty of people during the War." He looks at Wallace. "And so did Mister Garrick and the others." Wallace looks decidedly uncomfortable, but he doesn't protest the accusation.

"But… Yeah, it's unusual. Modern Superheroes usually try sticking to that very rigidly. I think the government took the fact that.. early on he limited himself to policing demonstrations.. as a sign that he wasn't willing to get involved in a direct confrontation. After they found out that wasn't the case… And that they basically had nothing that could meaningfully fight him… A lot of the military started defecting or deserting."

Kaldur presses another button. "Which led to the government focusing instead on irregular warfare." An image of a Shiruta street in the aftermath of an explosion. "Assassination attempts targeting rebel leaders and terrorist campaigns aimed at breaking the movement's morale."

Tula looks horrified. "Why doesn't the Justice League step in?"

"Because other countries don't want to see the League removing governments it doesn't like. And because they've got the same problem Adom does. The people in the remaining government enclaves are either loyalists or hostages. Any attack by either conventional forces or people with super powers and they start killing them." There's a moment of silence around the table as everyone takes that in. "Adom's tried negotiating the government's surrender. They won't have it. They're relying on food from the Red Cross to keep the people there alive, the government's already seized all the fuel… Something's going to happen soon and we need to know what."

Robin nods. "I should go on the Kahndaq mission. I speak the language and I'm probably the best here at infiltration. I also don't look like much of a threat."

Kaldur nods. "I agree."

I nod too and move his face to the Kahndaq side of the board. "Raquel, how much.. advanced technology has Arnus shown you? Stuff from the Collective."

"Not much. He made mah belt and ah've seen his ship a few times. I don't understand how any of it works, though."

Garth takes another look at the image of the ship. "I don't know anything about Kahndaq or spaceships, but the ship _is_under water. Tula and I…" He looks at Kaldur. "And Kaldur would have a far easier time coping with the conditions than the rest of you."

Wallace sags slightly. "Yeah, I don't think I'd be much use down there. Guess I'm heading to Kahndaq with Rob." Rob looks at him in puzzlement. "Ah, Robin-Rob, not Rob.. Rob."

Artemis shrugs. "I can't shoot arrows under water."

I move them both to Kahndaq then turn to Kaldur. "I think Garth's right. It's not just the water, they need far more immersion in surface society before they can hope to blend in."

"But you do not agree that I should join them."

"I know more about spacecraft than anyone here. I can handle the depth… Not even with the rings, my _armour_ can handle that depth.. with a.. _little_ work. And I'm not Maltusian but the rings will let me fake it as far as the ship's systems are concerned. If I take my Ice Fortress to the south west of the polar ice I even have a legitimate reason for being in the area."

"All true, but that does not necessarily preclude my involvement as well."

"I don't think we should both be on the same mission. You're team leader and… Um." I look around the room again. "I know we haven't.. voted on it or anything, but-."

"You are second in command."

"Unless.. anyone…" I hold my hands out to the side. "Wants to object?" I get a smile from M'gann and Zatanna but everyone else just looks puzzled.

"That was not a question. It was a statement. You _are_ my second in command. Batman would not have put you in charge of the Qurac mission if he did not think that you had the skills required."

"Oh. Um. Thank you." I was expecting a bit more debate on that assumption. "Anyway, my point was that we shouldn't both be on the same mission and I'm a better fit for the spaceship."

"I agree." I move our images to the appropriate columns. "Zatanna, how easily can you sustain yourself under water?"

"At.. that depth? I don't know. Usually when we visit Poseidonis Paul gives me an environmental shield. I think I _could_ cope, but I haven't really trained to fight under water. How long are we going to be down there?"

"You will not know until you get there. Cornwall Boy, how have your studies in water manipulation progressed?"

"Yeah, I can cope. Classical element thing. I won't be anything like as good as-" He looks at Tula and Garth. "-you are, but I can breathe and move around fine."

One magic user each. I update the holoscreen. "It would help if M'gann came with my group. That ship's big and I don't want radio waves that could let anyone know what we're doing down there. Plus, she can breathe water."

Kaldur nods. "Miss Martian?"

"Fine by me."

"Raquel, does your belt work under water?"

"I don't know. Never tried it."

I nod and move her to the Kahndaqi side. Kon smiles faintly as I assign him to my team. "That's done, then. Now for the actual planning."

**29th January  
11:33 GMT -4**

I lead the way in the direction of the cave's zeta tube, my team following on behind.

"When you say you have an 'ice fortress'..?"

Guess Tula hasn't got that far yet. "Back in Nov-." I remember who I'm talking to. "Near the end of last year, Werner Vertigo somehow paid for five giant flying fortresses to cover the United States in snow in an attempt to stop his niece getting a new heart."

"Why would he do that?"

M'gann's eye flick down before she answers. "Queen Perdita is the ruler of an Eastern European country called Vlatava. If she'd died, he would have become king."

Kon nods. "And we wouldn't have been able to prosecute him for being part of the Injustice League."

"Which still makes no sense. If he could afford five Ice Fortresses he could have _bought_ Vlatava." I throw my hands up."_Pffff_, supervillains. Anyway, Wallace delivered the heart-."

"He _what_?!" Garth look stunned and Tula's a little surprised. Of course, Atlanteans don't-.

"Heart transplant." Rob doesn't appear to realise why the Atlanteans are surprised. "You know. One person dies with their organs in good nick, they get cut out, packed in ice and given to someone else whose organs aren't working." A little disgust creeps into the Atlantean duo's expressions. "What? Better than wasting them."

"Atlantean biomancy means that Atlanteans have never needed to perform organ transplants. I imagine it sounds a little grisly if you haven't been exposed to the idea before."

It's Rob's turn to look surprised. "You can just _grow_ organs?"

Garth nods, recovering himself slightly. "A professional biomancer would be more likely to restore a damaged organ in the patient's body rather than grow one from nothing. But…" He nods. "Yes. Large scale organic technology is an area where the surface is well behind Atlantis."

Rob takes a moment to absorb that. "My Nan had to wait five bloody months to get her cataracts sorted out! How come biomancers don't work on the surface? They'd make a mint!"

Garth looks at Tula, who shakes her head. "Make.. what?"

"A mint is a place where physical currency is made. In this context it means 'make a great deal of money', because they would be able to offer a very useful service that no one else can. Things like that are why King Orin is trying to build trading relations with surface countries; you want purified metals and printed circuits, we want all the things magic can do easily that our technology just can't yet."

Tula nods. "I hadn't really thought about it. I just assumed that you must use something else if you don't use magic."

"Actually, that reminds me. It might be worth considering translation spells while on missions. Your English is very good and since we're going to be using telepathy this time it won't matter, but it could get very awkward if someone said something mission critical and you didn't understand it."

Garth nods. "Right."

Tula smiles. "We've been learning English since we were six, but speaking it with native speakers is very different to how it was in the classroom."

Kon shrugs. "I can translate for you. My Atlantean Greek's pretty much perfect."

"Be a bit slow, really."

Rob frowns at Kon. "What did.. you.. say?"

Ring translation, right. "Kon offered to translate, since his Atlantean is slightly better than their English."

Kon nods. "I've been practising a lot with Kaldur. Wanted to sound right before we went to Themyscira." He pauses. "Mom says I've picked up his accent."

"Anyway, as I was saying, Guy and I managed to capture a Fortress intact and I managed to land it.. sort of.. in the ocean. Since then Zatanna and I have been refurbishing and upgrading it. I'm not sure whether or not I exactly _own_ it, but all of Vertigo's legal efforts are going on keeping the executioner at bay so he hasn't been able to sue me for it. Heh. The Injustice League should **not** have set up shop in Louisiana." We come out in the training room. "I've been using it to repair the North Pole and anyone who sees me there will just assume that I'm doing more work on it. It'll be a perfect cover."

M'gann nods. "Are you going to transition us there?"

"No. I put a zeta tube terminus onboard the Fortress, along with medical facilities and a workshop." I come to a halt."Alright, mission discipline starts now. Code names only, no extraneous chatter. We're not expecting anything to be alive on the ship but we didn't expect a Flesh Titan in Aberrance either. Everyone sure they've got all the equipment they want?" Rob nods, the Sword of Beowulf's grisly scabbard strapped to his back. Kon's wearing a red and gold armoured wetsuit, the mithril chain mail within providing even a Kryptonian with meaningful protection. He glows in the light of Helios' blessing and is carrying a bag containing a change of clothes and a towel. M'gann's in her standard uniform and likewise has a small bag. Garth and Tula are back in their Atlantean clothing overlain by the same water armour jewellery they had when we attacked the Watchtower at New Year. Access to water won't be a problem outside the ship but it looks like at least _some_ of the ship is still air filled. Teekl opted to stay behind due to 'excessive water' and Kaldur will be using the Sphere and the Bio-Ship in Kahndaq. "Right then. Best foot forwards."

"Recognised, Orange Lantern-"

**29th January  
04:36 GMT -11**

"-B zero six,-"

I step out into the Fortress's embarkation room. Two independent monitoring systems immediately scan me to confirm my identity.

"-Superboy, B zero four,-"

Kon takes a quick look around at the art deco wood panelled walls. Heh, Zatanna and I went through about seven different decoration styles before-

"-Miss Martian, B zero five,-"

-we settled on this. None of it is natural wood, it's this sort of extremely resilient synthetic fibre Stewart ring had on file.

"-Cornwall Boy, B one zero,-"

Kon points at the wall with his right thumb. "What happened to the submarine look?"

"-Tempest, B one three,-"

"It got power ringed."

"-Aquagirl, B one four."

"Making this place liveable has been one of my side projects since I got it."

M'gann peers around. "It's quieter than they used to be. Are we on the ground?"

"No. I stripped out the system for freezing the air. I'm not trying to create a blizzard anymore, so I didn't need it. The antigravity system the Fortress uses to fly is virtually silent." Ring, transmit course change.

Compliance.

I start towards the door. "Come with me. I haven't got an excuse for suddenly accelerating to the operation zone so it'll be an hour or two before we arrive. The views from the observation platform are truly splendid."

**29th January  
05:02 GMT -11**

I carefully prevent any expression of amusement leaking onto my face as I look down at my Atlantean team mates. They're sitting on an observation deck bench as far from the edge as possible. "Are you _sure_ you're alright?"

Garth -pale faced- nods weakly while Tula strokes his right hand. "I'm just not used to being this high up."

"Yeah, I used to have the same problem. You know that the force fields won't let you fall off, right?"

Tula shakes her head. "I don't think that matters. A lot of Atlanteans find the sky disturbing to look at, and now the sky is _down_. And we can see much further here than we could under water."

I nod. It's like when Littlepip first left her stable. Garth was fine flying around in the Bio-Ship but he clearly isn't coping so well with similar sort of height in an apparently open air environment. Day's only three hours long here at this time of year but the brilliant lights from the Fortress illuminate the air all around us, including the sea far below. "I'm sorry, I should have thought about it. You _can_ just go inside-."

"No. Thanks, but I have to get used to seeing this." He looks up towards the horizon and swallows heavily. "I'll be fine once we get back under water."

I nod again and turn away. Kon and M'gann are doing a 'Jack and Rose' against the railings, looking out across the arctic sea in our direction of travel. Rob is more interested in the frozen wake we're leaving so he's opted to fly overhead. Nice to see that his air manipulations skills have come on so much, even if he can't move particularly fast like that. His posture strikes me as odd. I tend to fly standing upright, M'gann usually flies in the swimmer pose but he flies sort of bent, with his hands out to the side as if the air was holding him up. And I suppose that since he's using air manipulation magic to do it the air sort of is. Looks a bit like Iron Man, using his hand repulsors to keep level. He notices me watching, waves to me with his right hand and for a moment tumbles through the air before getting back under control.

"…whatever you think, but you should probably talk to _him_ about it."

Yeah, I'm going to schedule some practice time with him.

"You're right." I look around as Kon and M'gann step away from the railing. "Orange Lantern? Can I talk to you for a minute?"

I head over to them. "Of course. What is it?"

M'gann looks off to the side for a moment. "I've been trying to decide whether or not to use J'aarkn's Kuru Pendant." She reaches into her bag and pulls out the small gold coloured metallic disc. "It could really help with the mission if I could change shape as well as he can, but…" She wrinkles her nose.

I shrug. "I'm pretty much-" I wave my right arm at the central tower of my Ice Fortress. "-'go for the power up' guy. _I'd_ take it, but I don't properly understand what interfacing with one of those is like for a Martian. Particularly…" I make a circling motion with my right hand.

They nod. "J'aarkn." / "J'aarkn."

"Right. You're old enough to make your own decision and he said he didn't put any of his work stuff on it. What are you worried about?"

She raises the Pendant up slightly. "When a Martian puts information on one of these they have to…" She thinks for a moment and then shakes her head. "I don't think there's a word for it in English. 'Think impersonally'. They have to impress their knowledge without any of what they think about it crossing over as well. It's actually quite hard to learn how to do it properly. J'aarkn almost certainly didn't perform the whole ritual. I believe him when he says that what's on here is.. you know, _safe_, but if I read it… I'd see the information in the way **he** saw it."

Ah. "Is it an 'all or nothing' thing, or can you just take a peek and see how bad it is?"

M'gann exhales. "I could get a rough idea, but I wouldn't _really_ know until I interfaced fully."

"Is there a downside to doing that?"

"If he's done a _really_ bad job, it might interfere with my ability to complete the mission. And, um…" She glances at Kon and then looks away, blushing slightly.

Right. Infectious libido. "Have you spoken to Martian Manhunter-"

**!** Her eyes widen and she cringes slightly.

"-about.. this?"

**No. Nononononono. That would-. No.**

**Is there someone on Mars you'd like to ask? We can be there in a few-.**

**That wouldn't-! I mean, I wouldn't mind...** Another look at Kon. *Maybe a _little bit_…**

"I can't really give you advice because I can't properly judge the risks involved. J'aarkn seemed honest to me, and he wasn't some sort of.. crazed, shapeshifting lust machine. He had friends and a life that didn't completely revolve around sex. The best I can suggest is that you take a peek, then go for it if his.. 'projected bias' is within acceptable levels. However, I'd still be happier if you discussed this with an actual Martian first."

She nods. "I… I know, but I think this is a decision I want to make by myself."

Kon looks out to sea. "How long 'till we get there?"

"Assuming nothing changes, about half an hour."

"Navy not doing anything?"

"Had a few polite enquiries about what we're doing.. and a _firm_ reminder from the Russians about the exclusion zone."Compared to 'moon getting flipped around' I don't suppose me freezing a slightly different part of the arctic circle is really a big deal. "We're under observation, but they don't seem too concerned."

He shifts his attention to M'gann. "Is half an hour enough time?"

She nods. "Yes." Her eyes glow as she levitates the Pendant up in front of her. "Okay, I'm… I'm going to do it." She pulls her upper arms to her sides and holds her forearms out with her palms upwards, the Pendant dropping to just above them.

"How long does it take?"

"Having a quick look should only take a few minutes."

"And.. the full thing?"

Her eyes dim slightly. "C-. Superboy, I'm… I need to concentrate to do this."

"Oh. Sssorry. I didn't…"

"No, it's…" She leans back into him slightly, looking back to make partial eye contact. "I'm really grateful for your support, it's just… When you're here, it's… It's a little bit difficult to focus on this sort of thing."

"**O**h. Okay. Um, so should I _stay_, or-."

"**Stay**.. but… Try not to be distracting."

Kon looks at me and I make the tiniest shrug I can. "I'll.. try..?"

M'gann straightens up, takes a deep breath and her eyes start glowing again. The Pendant makes a quick spin on its axis and then holds position so that the image engraved on its surface is facing her the correct way up. A few moments pass and the outlines of the design start glowing the same colour as her eyes.

"Okay, I've… I'm in. Feels.. o_kay_. None of the **obvious** warning signs. Actually, I.. think he's done an okay job." The glow holds steady as she continues to stare at it. "I'm going to try going deeper."

"Would it be distracting if I said 'be careful'?"

"Yes, but I think I'd like you to anyway."

He kisses the top of her head. "Be careful."

"And from me too. Drop it at the first sign of trouble."

"Thanks. Okay, I'm going in." Her eyes glow brighter and the whole of the Pendant lights up to match them.

**29th January  
05:29 GMT -11**

M'gann holds out her right arm, pauses a moment and then splits her forearm down the middle. Then she turns each side into a cephalopod tentacle, then causes one to grow green fur while the other extrudes a series of insectoid wings. "Huh." She holds her forearm.. um, _arms_ up for a closer inspection, wiggling her tentacles and wings independently of each other. Well, I'm impressed. Most Humans struggle to move their centre and ring fingers independently of one another and she can do it with limbs copied from entirely different phylum.

Kon looks a little concerned. "You're sure you feel okay?"

She flicks her right arm to the side, restoring its Human form. "Uh-huh. J'aarkn actually did a pretty good job of keeping his biases out of the Pendant. Not quite how a real master would do it.. but he _really_ wasn't a master."

"Anything likely to be useful to the mission?"

"I can do his trick of stretching myself out really thin and disguising my mass." She shakes her head. "I'm not sure how useful that would be here though."

"And you don't feel like…" Kon look off to the side somewhere. "Y'know…"

"**No**." Her eyes widen slightly. "I don't mean-. Not that I don't-. I mean, he didn't-."

He smiles and pulls her towards him. She calms down almost immediately, relaxing against his chest as they embrace and then turning her face upwards to receive a kiss.

I turn away slightly to wave up at Rob. He spots it and turns a little awkwardly through the air before moving towards me, losing height as he comes. He misjudges the landing slightly and has to do a sort of jogging stagger to bleed momentum. Flying appears to be a fairly energy intensive thing for him to do; I noticed that he had to stop and recharge from the Sword of Beowulf every ten minutes or so.

I take a few steps towards him as Tula and Garth come over to join us. "Cornwall, are you going to be alright keeping your spell up underwater?"

He nods confidently. "Yeah, no problem. Aqualad was helping with the whole water manipulation thing. If it's just swimming around and breathing and that, I can keep it going for a couple of hours."

"How are we-" Garth glances at the edge of the observation deck. "-getting down there?"

"I can fly everyone down, but since we might have to come back up on our own in an emergency I thought I'd land the Fortress."

Tula looks at me and then up at the control tower. "It can float?"

"Not unless I create huge amounts of ice to spread the weight. But the antigravity system can be set to any level of repulsion and the outer surface of the Fortress is watertight. It will end up sitting in the water with the waves reaching the-"I point. "Edge of the observation deck. Easy to get back on board if something goes wrong." I look around the group as Kon and M'gann separate and start focusing their minds on the mission again. "If everyone's ready I'll begin the descent."

Tula looks at Garth with concern but he waves her off.

I theatrically aim my left arm at the control tower. "Ring, take us to sea level."

"Compliance."

The Fortress stops all horizontal motion and begins to lower itself. Obviously it doesn't need to be directed by power ring at all times. The main control systems work fine and the computer is sophisticated enough to interpret instructions. Not sophisticated enough to become fully intelligent, of course. It isn't artificially being prevented from doing so, it just flat out lacks the capacity. I take a moment to make sure that Garth is coping, but it looks like us heading towards the ocean is making him cheer up.

Something occurs to Kon. "What's the visibility going to be like down there?"

"Near the surface it should be pretty good. Water temperature is fairly constant and nothing really happens to kick up sediment" Tula turns to look at me. "Are you sure we can't use light orbs?"

"Atlanteans being in this part of the world would probably cause nearly as big a freak out as the alien ship. We can use them when we get to the ocean floor but not before that." The ocean's getting noticeably louder now but I can't feel us moving at all. Inertial dampeners are awesome. I create a scaled down construct of the ship and point to an area towards what I think is the front. "Remember, our entry point is here. The Fortress's lights won't be able to shine all of the way down but they will get us started. Tempest, Aquagirl, go ahead and do a circuit of the ship. Deposit light orbs as you go. I'll see about getting Superboy, Miss Martian and Cornwall Boy inside and then start a structural survey of the exterior."

"So… What…" Rob looks a little uncomfortable asking. "I know you said there shouldn't be anyone on board, but what do we do if there is?"

"If it's the ship's owners then our job gets a lot easier since we won't have to dodge the Russian and American militaries any longer. We offer to help with repairs and send them on their way. If they've got injuries I've got a power ring and a database full of biological data. Since this is a Maltusian ship I regard the possibility of there being crew aboard as vanishingly unlikely since I can't think of anything they could survive which would prevent them from making repairs. If it's navy personnel from a country on Earth -which at this depth and in these conditions I severely doubt- then we'll need to check in with Batman. If it's Russia or America we'll probably end up leaking the existence of the ship to the other and suggesting that the League should manage it. If it's another country then-" I look at M'gann. "-they'll probably get new memories. If it's a third party then we detain them if we can and monitor them if we can't. The only group I can think of who might contest this is Black Manta's mercenaries and this would be a long way away from their usual haunts." I look around. "Any other questions?"

No one says anything. "Okay. Final equipment checks and then prepare to dive."

Tula and Garth trigger their Dolmen Gates, sending small amounts of water out across their jewellery. Neither the water nor the temperature bother them but the armour will allow them to move faster than they can swim at less cost to their mana reserves than casting spells themselves. And protect them, though I doubt that will be necessary on this mission. They already know how to propel themselves in a way which doesn't create enough turbulence to appear on sonar.

Rob puts his visor in place. I put a fully armoured wetsuit together for him for this mission and he's wearing it to humour me but he was pretty confident that he could take the temperature and pressure. He hasn't bothered with fins for the same reason; he'll be moving around with magic and not muscular force. He does have a small Dolman Gate linked to an air supply as part of his facial gear but that's a back up option. He intends to get his air by his own magics. He looks me for approval. Yep, everything's set up right. I nod.

M'gann's shifted into an Atlantean form of the same type as Kaldur. Her neck has thickened and there are pronounced gills on either side. She has also shrunk as she increases her density. Martians aren't actually adapted to life on the surface of modern Mars but their tolerance for cold is still far greater than that of Humans. She'll shift to Merform when we get into the water. Since she has functional gills she doesn't need any sort of air supply and further equipment would just get in the way of her shapeshifting.

Kon's probably the weakest in the water of all of us. He doesn't have to worry about heat or pressure either but he does need a constant air supply. He'll be carrying an air tank to go alongside his Dolman Gate air supply. Sad that I don't have a spare large Gate to just drop down there really, but there aren't all that many of them and they're all in use. He's also wearing fins and webbed gloves.

My own power armour appears on me as M'gann makes external checks on Kon's equipment. Have to keep the flight belt inactive while we're well under water. It'll only be a reserve system for if the rings fail anyway. No fins for me because there's no way I'd be able to generate enough effort to move armour this heavy through the water. I have a Dolmen Gate air supply to go with a filtration field thingy I got from Stewart Ring's database. It should be able to capture gasses dissolved in the water to generate breathable air but frankly it looks far too fragile for me to want to rely on it. Two back ups for the two rings should be plenty.

**Miss Martian, please link us up.**

Her eyes glow for a moment. **We're linked.**

I look around the group. **Everyone, please respond with your call sign.**

**Superboy.**

**Cornwall Boy.**

**Aquagirl.**

**Tempest.**

**Link is good. Aquagirl, Tempest, dive when ready.**

**29th January  
05:35 GMT -11**

There's a flare of orange light as I momentarily generate a wedge construct around me to ease my passage into the water. Through my armour's visor I see the gloom of the Arctic ocean pierced by the Ice Fortress' powerful light beams and the thin trail of bubbles released by my Atlantean colleagues as they power towards the bottom. With no obstacles in the water I have the ring start pushing me downwards and instruct the HUD to display the result of the ring's scans of the seabed. Garth and Tula are about twenty metres below me and making good time towards the ship which the HUD models as an orange wire frame. The water here isn't _all_ that deep, a mere six hundred metres compared to around about three thousand for Poseidonis.

**Brrr! Bit cold!**

**Cornwall Boy, unless you are actually in difficulty please keep the chatter down.** The HUD shows me his relative position six metres behind me, up and a little to my right. **The water here is at minus two degrees. It was colder above the water than it is here.**

**Sorry, right. Um, not in any difficulty. Just need t'.. change how I'm heating... Okay. Done.**

My HUD blinks as he increases his speed slightly. He may have been on the team longer than Garth and Tula but he still has less combat experience. Probably good that we assigned him to the more straight forward mission. I take a moment to study the image of the ship. Bit of an odd shape. Most starships are approximately cylindrical in order to maximise internal volume. A few species use strongly divergent designs to accommodate some aspect of their technology and small ships sometimes retain an aerofoil shape but the laws of physics do rather cause things to trend in one direction. The ship I'm looking at is nearly as tall as it is long and a fraction as wide. Doesn't match Maltusian ship designs on file, but their ships were usually custom built so it isn't surprising that there isn't a particular record. Does suggest somewhat that this isn't a **Guardian**vessel... I can detect the functioning power source clearly but the rest of the ship is defying me. Some sort of anti power ring shielding?

Normal safe descent speed during a dive is about ten meters per minute. Most of us can flat out ignore that recommendation, but Kon needs to go a little slower even with his eyes, mouth and ears covered. It isn't really a problem; we haven't done anything quite like this before and I'm happy to go at a steady pace.

**Tempest, anything to report?**

**Clear swimming down here. Perimeter will be twenty meters out at three meters above the seabed.**

Only ship I know of that had that profile were Apokoliptian portal ships from their last showdown with New Genesis. Of course, I don't know its proper orientation. If I assume that it landed on its side and partially buried itself...

**Are there likely to be any external defences?**

I consider Tula's question for a moment. Modern Green Lantern ships have giant green power beams focused by whoever the Lantern in command is and are protected by stupendously strong green barriers. They don't have automated weaponry because they don't usually want to kill whoever it is they're fighting. Modern Controller ships can look like just about anything, though the ones Stewart Ring records as being used by the Darkstars tend to focus on speed and stealth over gunnery. Since I don't know exactly where this ship is from or precisely who built it I can't say for sure. **Maltusian automated defences tended to be purely passive. The main protection for the ship was the fact that there were Maltusians on board. Still, if you see the ship react to your presence in any way, fall back and create cover immediately.**

**Were the Maltusians so popular that no one wanted to attack them?**

**No, Miss Martian. It was more to do with their status as demigods. Picking a fight with a Maltusian was.. and _is_ something you have to be very sure of yourself to try.**

**You worked out why they crashed yet?**

Kon's lagging behind slightly. Within the expected margin though. It just isn't as easy to propel yourself with fins as it is by the techniques the rest of us are using. Add 'super swim armour' to the wish list... **Not for certain. From my scans of their power sources it looks like they had a distributed system. There wouldn't be any main engineering or primary drive to destroy. The damage is _bad_ but it's not a killing shot. Shouldn't have been, anyway.** I think for a moment. **If it were a _very_ old ship, back from when they first went out into space... _Maybe_ if something shot them when they were at the edge of Earth's atmosphere? Really I'm just guessing.**

**Who do you think it was?**

**Let me put it this way. This galaxy is around thirteen billion years old. Planet Earth is a little over four and a half billion years old. Maltus is **ten** billion years old. I don't have precise timelines for their development but it's not impossible that this ship pre-dates our solar system. Given that sort of range... Could have been any one of hundreds of species.**

**We're at depth. Tempest and I are splitting up to deploy light globes.**

**Message received. Carry on.**

**[Frown] It can't be _that_ old.** I just heard M'gann's frown. Since I started routinely shielding my mind I haven't been getting those sorts of impressions. Blocks are still in place... Odd. **Wouldn't it have got covered up by sand if it had been down here that long?**

**It's near dead centre of a small plateau. It's quite possible that its systems forced the surrounding rock into shape. What _doesn't_ make sense is why no one picked it up.**

The lights from the Fortress have long since faded behind us and I can just about make out the change in the texture of the murk below us as the light orbs are activated. Not much further now. My HUD indicates Tula pausing for a moment. **Could they have been hiding?**

**Any number of things are possible, but the list of rogue Maltusians is very short.** Basically just Krona actually, though that might have been due to the Guardians tidying it up a little by taking the names of those known to be no longer active off. Not for the first time I find myself wishing I could be in contact with the Controllers already so that I'd have someone to ask about this stuff. Million to one shot there's an actual Controller **on** that ship, but maybe I could find some way to use the technology on board to contact them?

I can dimly see the hull of the ship as an area of slightly darker water below us. No tron lines. Could be the damage and time or it might indicate that it comes from an earlier era. **Everyone still together?** I know full well that everyone is but I want to make sure everyone is awake.

**I've been following the orange glow all the way down. I can just about see that spaceship now.** Rob probably can't see anyone else. Good that he doesn't appear to be letting that worry him.

**I've been using ultrasound to keep track of everyone.**

**I was wondering what the noise was. How did you learn how to do that?**

**It was on J'aarkn's amulet. I just had to modify my throat and ears a little. And.. a.. few parts of my brain so I could actually understand the image.**

**Superboy, can you see the ship?**

**A little. I don't think it's giving off any heat.**

**I'm moving towards the entry point now. Superboy, Miss Martian and Cornwall Boy, with me. Tempest and Aquagirl, are you finished with the lights yet?**

**Yes.** / **All done.**

**Go to the damaged section but stay back for now.**

**Is it alright if we prep a water clearing spell?**

Tula raised that during our planning session. The water around Poseidonis is remarkably clear but until they pointed it out I hadn't really given it any thought. Clearing up here -as long as there is still enough silt overhead- will make our job a good deal more pleasant. **Maltusians didn't traditionally have much to do with magic. The ship _shouldn't_ react. Wait until I've made contact with the ship's systems before casting.**

**Right. Tempest, I'm moving around to your side of the ship now.**

I come to a stop in the water about twenty meters away from what I hope is the ship's hatch **Starting entry attempt now.**

**29th January  
05:59 GMT -11**

**Firstly, every adventurer's best friend.** I push my right arm out to the side, conscious of the effect of the higher pressure on my movements. **A ten foot pole.** My solid steel pole appears in a flicker of orange.

M'gann swims a little closer to me. **Why do you have a ten foot pole?**

**I've loaded all sorts of things into the ring's subspace pocket. This just happens to be-** I turn my arm, pointing the far end of the pole in the direction of the ship. **-the most sensible way of checking for a energy shield.** I connect a filament to the pole and release it, using the ring's power to propel it towards the ship.

**If there was, wouldn't we be able to see it in the water?**

**Depends on what sort. It might react to increases in density rather than just pressure.** I watch as the far end of the pole gets closer to the doorway. Fifteen meters, twelve, eight, five and I start slowing it down. Four, three, two, one and just as it touches the hull there's a flicker of something and it leaps from my grasp!

Connection lost.

I recapture my pole. **Some sort of energy barrier appeared just as it touched the surface of the ship. Ring?**

Energy consistent with pre-glow Maltusian technology.

That.. dates it, but Earth would have been a storm covered semi-molten rock back then. The shield might explain why the ship isn't buried. With great care I bring the pole back to bear. Gently, gently… The shield triggers again but this time there isn't enough pushing force to cause the pole to slide aside. Ideally, there'd be some way to proxy touching it with the ring… Stewart ring, decouple from the original ring.

Operation complete.

I hold out my right hand and very carefully extend a filament towards the barrier. No response to its approach. Okay, tooouch…

Minor energy drain detected.

The shield isn't resisting the filament, but there is a small amount of energy leaching going on. Barrier's staying up.

**Miss Martian, please try very gently pushing against the barrier with telekinesis.**

**Okay. Starting **now**** Nothing for a second as the barrier fails to respond. **!**

**Miss Martian!** Kon swims to catch her as she gets shoved back.

**I'm okay. I'm not hurt.**

**What happened?**

**All the force I put into pushing it got reflected back. I was.. pushing against myself.**

Hmm. **Cornwall Boy, do you know any sort of remote viewing or scrying magic?**

**'bit.**

**Please attempt to scry the barrier. Doesn't matter if you don't discover anything, I just want to see how it reacts.**

**Okay, but it's not really something I've practised much.**

**I can do that. It's been a while but long range communication is part of the academy's standard training program.**

I turn, looking through the water to where my HUD tells me Garth is swimming. **In this instance, it's probably better for the spell to be slightly clumsy. You're trained to use magic in a precise, combative way. I just want to see what mana does when it looks as little like a spell as possible.**

**Thanks.** I turn to look in Rob's direction. The water around him is bent slightly and it wouldn't surprise me at all to find out that he's dry under his water manipulation. Both of his arms are outstretched and there's another distortion between his hands. It flickers for a moment and then is gone. **Sorry, not used to doing this when I'm _in_ the water I'm using it on.**

**Did you feel any feedback? **

**Yeah, but I don't think it was from the shield thing. Just.. felt like a spell collapsing. I don't know, don't think this one's supposed to be used under water.**

No apparent reaction from the barrier. **Alright, Superboy, Miss Martian, Cornwall Boy, back off another twenty metres.**

**Ah… It's kinda hard to judge…**

Kon has a point. I project a thick orange beam behind me. **About that far. Aquagirl, Tempest, there shouldn't be a reaction where you are but just in case-.**

**We'll pull back too.**

Rob moves backwards through the water without turning, as if something is pulling him away. M'gann flicks her tail and heads after him while Kon follows more slowly. If I can get in I'll take him with me. He just isn't as capable in the water as everyone else. **Okay, I'm going in.** Hmm. Stewart ring, re-interface with original ring.

Operation complete.

**How do the doors on Green Lantern spaceships usually work?**

Reasonable question on Kon's part. **They don't have them. They use selectively permeable energy construct barriers. Their doors double as weapon hardpoints.** I stop three meters away and return the pole to subspace. The barrier disappears once more. I create construct armour around myself and reach forwards with both hands. **No reaction to orange light proximity. That might mean that this ship predates Larfleeze's theft of the Orange Central Power Battery… Or it might be indicative of the damage the ship has suffered.**

**Larfleeze stole a Central Power Battery?!** Garth's astonishment comes across clearly in his mental speech. **The same as the one which powers the entire Green Lantern Corps?**

**Different colour and it's a good deal smaller, but yes. I don't have good data on exactly how he pulled that one off. And because the Guardians suppressed all information about it I don't know exactly when it happened.** I think it was before the Sector 666 Genocide. Wasn't it? I seem to remember the comic depicted the Guardians who negotiated with him having a Manhunter escort. Even _they_ wouldn't have done that _after_. Would they? **Getting closer now. Still no reaction.** I reach forwards a little further, fingers stretching to touch the hull. The construct doesn't trigger the barrier. **Either the barrier can't detect the construct or it doesn't regard it as hostile.** I have the fingertips of the construct armour peel away where it touches the hull so that my armour can reach for it. No, let's see-.

The barrier flares back into being.

Minor power drain detected. / Minor power drain detected.

I pull both hands away. No damage to my armour's gauntlets. Leaving the construct armour whole this time I stretch forth my right arm again, planting it firmly on the doorway. No reaction. Okay, so now I can _touch_ the thing…

Open sesame?

There aren't any buttons, knobs or other protuberances. The seam is tiny. I only detected it with a power ring scan, otherwise I could probably have looked the whole thing over without ever once detecting it. Ring, can you find anything to interface with?

No computation system found. Addendum; emotional light spectrum systems detected.

Right. There wouldn't necessarily have _been_ a computer. Of course, if they used a system similar to modern ones…

Ring, feed power into the local system. Don't give it more than five percent maximum store.

Energy feed in progress.

The entryway shimmers orange for a moment and then is replaced entirely with an orange portal. I smile. Looks like we're in.

**29th January  
06:06 GMT -11**

**Entry point available.** I take out the pole again and push it through the orange barrier which has replaced the doorway. It passes through with no resistance. Once it's entirely inside I release it and watch it drop onto the floor within. **No reaction to the presence of a foreign body. I'll go in first. Superboy, assuming that nothing happens, you're in next.**

**Right.**

I drift forwards, right arm slightly forwards. The barrier is clearly blocking water just fine but my arm goes through as if there's nothing there, just as the pole did. There is no illumination inside besides that provided by the orange entry point. Ring, probe.

No artificial gravity detected. Elevated carbon dioxide and methane and reduced oxygen from planetary norm.

Maltus' air was pretty much the same as Earth's. If there's no one there the ship would probably have deprioritised life support. How does air on a spaceship change without that? According to Stewart ring's records it depends on exactly which systems are deactivated and what microbes there are. Guardian ships of the modern era are ruthless about excluding microbial life, partially due to Guardian OCD and partially due to concerns about cross contamination. Unlike the mantra in the Hospital Station series diseases _can_ often affect different species of humanoids. Not all the time but we have so much organic chemistry in common… Heck, fertile hybrids can happen between some pairings and that's just.. _daft_.

Oh, I'm dragging this out. I push myself through the barrier. Turns out that the outer hull is about twenty centimetres thick, though if this wasn't intended to be a combat vessel Guardians.. or other Maltusians, could have made it paper thin if they'd wanted. It's been a very long time since Maltusians built ships because they _needed_ them, rather than because they were convenient. Leaving the construct armour up I turn left and then right. Corridors with sealed doors. No guard station… That implies other species weren't involved in crewing it. Again, I scoop up the pole and return it to subspace. Next, I orientate myself to the corridor and take a few light globes out of my ever versatile subspace holdall, reflecting not for the first time that a person could be a successful superhero with that ability alone. I send one globe to each end of the corridor. The ship doesn't respond and the doors remain shut. One thing left to try then. I land and drop the construct armour, tensing slightly. Nothing.

Ring, is this section sealed?

No airflow detected.

I make a jazz hands gesture and the air around me is purified in a wave of orange. **Alright, Superboy. In you come.**

**On my way.**

Looking up I see him swim towards the barrier. If it blocks him I can just put an environmental shield around him. Oh, wait, there aren't any handholds and he left his flight equipment back in the mountain. Rungs won't be any use, he's still got his fins on. I settle for creating a platform just down from the entry. I can lower him from that.

Kon swims right up to the barrier face first before reorientating to crouch against the hull. His hands sink easily through the orange barrier. **Are you making this?**

**No, I just fed the ship a little power. Apparently it can auto-transubstantiate.** He looks blank. I try narrowing my telepathic connection to just him. **Switch from matter to energy without intelligent intervention.**

**Oh.** He reaches further in and takes a grip on the interior surface. **It doesn't really feel like much.** A little hesitantly he pulls himself forwards, head pulled back slightly until his face is fully enveloped, then thrust forwards so that it clears the orange barrier as quickly as possible. Head and chest out he holds out his arms to arrest his expected fall but instead his hips and legs remain inside the barrier. Looks like it can hold a person's weight. He pulls his hands back so that they're braced against the sides of the portal and pushes his legs free before dropping onto my platform. **Is the air safe?**

**Yes, but leave your mask on for the moment. It might not be in other parts of the ship.** I look back up at the opening.**Tempest, Aquagirl, please cast your spell.**

**We'll just need a moment.** I narrow my eyes and reach.. outwards through the telepathic link binding us together. Through M'gann's eyes I see a strange blue glow from near the seabed which appears to grow in definition as time passes. Suddenly I… **She** blinks heavily as silt precipitates out of the water around her and is shoved outwards. Combined with the light sources they placed around the bottom of the ship she can finally see its whole off-white hull.

**Whooooowh.** Rob sounds impressed. I suppose he's had to rely on my scans to see what the ship-. **That spell's amazing! When this is over, could you show me how to do it?**

**Of course.** Garth sounds a little puzzled. **It isn't a big deal, everyone in Atlantis learns that spell.**

**When you live on the sea bed you need to learn how to stop everything getting covered in dirt.**

**Does it work in the shallows?**

**I don't see why it wouldn't. But why would you need it?**

**I know a load of surfers who'd love to be able to do something like that!**

**Cornwall, that can wait until after the mission.**

**Sorry.**

**Interior of the ship appears structurally sound, no visible damage. Air was a bit musty but there isn't any organic matter in this section. It's been perfectly sealed since the ship landed. Pressure equal to Earth sea level. No automated defences or other nasties. No artificial gravity.** Ring, try scanning. Ugh. **Still can't scan beyond my immediate environment, including sonics. I can detect the power source and the defunct storage vessels. Two are towards the-** I form a three dimensional image of the part of the ship I'm talking about in my mind. **-front of the ship while most of the rest are in lines near the top and bottom. Since those two are the closest we'll head there first. Tempest and Aquagirl, get started surveying the exterior. Call out anything interesting.**

**We'll get right on it.** / **Understood.**

**Miss Martian and Cornwall Boy, please join us inside.**

**On my way.** / **Be there in a moment.**

Rob makes it to the entrance first, dropping in feet first and landing heavily on the floor, legs fully bent. M'gann follows a moment later, swimming through head first and holding herself in the air with telekinesis.

**Miss Martian, are you able to phase through the walls?**

**I'll try.** Her tail shifts back into legs as she floats towards it and reaches out to touch it with her right hand. I see her muscles tense as she applies a little pressure. **No, it doesn't work. Whatever this is made of resists my phasing as well as your scan.**

I activate my armour's integrated phase shifter and stamp my right foot. Same result. **That's the thing about very advanced alien civilisations.**

**What is?**

**They're very advanced.** I feel a tiny flicker of amusement from her. **Just in case there's something unpleasant in the next section…** I connect a filament to the other three before flying over to the door which hopefully leads in the right direction. Interesting thing about this corridor: the floor, the walls and ceiling are all about two metres across and the corners are slightly curved. For humanoids the Maltusians were never particularly tall and the Guardians only ever shrunk. Were there a lot of people on board? **The door is clearly a door this time, rather than a barely distinguishable part of the hull. It's slightly recessed compared to the wall around it. The colour is the same off white as the outer hull and the other walls. There's a seam running from the centre to each corner, presumably how it opens. It's half again as wide as it is tall, which might make sense for Guardians.** I raise my left hand. **Since it isn't responding to my proximity and there isn't an obvious control system I'm going to try feeding it from the ring.** Ring, power feed. Just to the door.

Compliance.

Rather than turn orange the parts of the door turn semi-liquid and run back into the surrounding wall, revealing another corridor.

If this whole thing turns out to be empty I'm going to be ever so disappointed.

**29th January  
06:12 GMT -11**

Another door, another corridor. This one leads to a curved double sided drop… I look at the corridor we're standing in.**The ship's on its side.**

M'gann looks at me like she's waiting for the punch line. **Yes?**

**We didn't actually know that.**

M'gann keeps looking at me, then turns to Kon and Rob. They look at each other, then Kon turns to me. **Uh… We didn't?**

**Most spaceships aren't designed to fly in atmospheres. There wasn't really any reason to assume…** Yeah, okay, I guess it was more likely. **Cornwall, are you going to be alright flying yourself down?**

**No, this isn't… I can't do that in enclosed spaces. Not _yet_, I mean.**

The corridors don't have handholds. **Alright.** I send a couple of light globes down and around what I suspect is the bridge. Quick optic scan… **The door is towards the rear face. Cornwall, Superboy, how much practice have you had with flight belts?**

Rob winces. **Not much. I've been.. y'know.. focusing on magic stuff.**

**I can fly around with it, as long as I don't have to do any complicated flying.**

I take a belt out of subspace and hand it to Kon. **Miss Martian, Cornwall, wait here while Superboy and I check it out.**They nod as Kon straps on the belt and triggers it, rising slightly off the ground. Keeping a careful eye on my environment I slowly fly through the open doorway and down the curving corridor to where the main entry to the bridge is located. Slightly larger door than the others, and it has another similarly sized door on the opposite wall. Would they have been open during normal operation? I still don't really know what sort of ship this was. The closeness of the entry point to the command centre and the relatively exposed position of it suggests civilian rather than military but they might just have decided that the chance of something attacking them was so low it didn't matter.

**Tempest, Aquagirl, anything to report?**

**We're looking at the damage now.** Tula sounds puzzled. *I'm… I'm not really an expert of spaceships. I don't really know what I'm looking for.**

**Look for patterns of damage. Is it one big impact or several smaller ones? Are there burn marks? What do the exposed section look like? I'm not looking for a detailed technical analysis, no one is qualified to give that.**

**Right.** I send a filament out and touch it to the door. No energy shield. Ring, begin energy feed.

Compliance.

**The edge of the damaged area is jagged.. and.. brittle.** I get a momentary flicker of Tula holding a piece of the hull, broken off in her hand. **The energy barrier doesn't activate when I touch it.**

**There are puncture marks of some kind on the interior surfaces. They don't go through the outer hull, though. Some sort of fight inside the ship?**

**Could be. Proceed carefully. If something looks like it could be dangerous, assume that it is.**

The door in front of me opens, revealing the darkened command centre. I send a light globe forwards but I can already tell whose ship this is. **This was a Guardian vessel. The raised area around the front and the sides with the central holo pit is distinctive. Probably pre-dating the Green Lantern Corps.**

Kon floats forwards a little. **How can you tell?**

**Too much space. There aren't enough Guardians left to need this much space even if they all got together in one place, and they don't do _that_ anywhere but Oa. If it were recent, there would be headroom for the Green Lantern Honour Guard who'd be manning the ship.**

**How many Guardians are there?**

**A total of eleven actively participate in running the Corps. There _might_ be others around, I don't know exactly what the membership requirements are.** I recognised some names on the list; Ganthet, Sayd and Appa Ali Apsa exist here. According to Lantern Stewart's ring the others mostly disdain the use of names. It only knew Sayd's because Ganthet once used it in Stewart's presence. The two of them appear to have the personalities I was expecting. Appa on the other hand appears to be some sort of social scientist. A quick check showed that he was frequently absent from briefing sessions.

I send a probe construct forwards. Ah. With no artificial gravity objects have fallen down. There's a pile of crushed bones and partially burned and torn robes at the apparent bottom of the room, and- ooh shit! Is that a Manhunter? Robotic humanoid, but… The outer surface isn't red and it doesn't have that white faceplate they usually do. I can't see any obvious damage and it's partially buried under the remains of its masters. Looks like.. three Guardians? Assuming a standard humanoid skeletal structure.

**Well? Are we going in?**

**There's a combat robot. It looks inactive, but I'm a bit wary of setting it off.** A Manhunter which wasn't getting other instructions would have acted the moment we opened the door. This one… It's one visible arm appears to have been designed to look like is possessed a humanoid musculature. Most of the arm is grey, terminating in a white five fingered gauntlet. The chest appears to be covered in some sort of green leotard thing and the head is a solid ovoid with bulging green eyes and some sort of mouth grill where a humanoid's mouth would be. I have no idea what that is. Could it be a robotic Lantern? One of their early recruits?

Subject is a 'Fist of the Guardians', presently inactive.

I have no idea what that is. Stewart ring?

Fist units were created after the abandonment of the Manhunter project-.

You mean the Massacre of Sector 666.

There is no data on file concerning the cause of the mass extinction in that region, nor to support the belief that the Manhunters were in any way involved. Fist units are designed not to possess the reasoning capacity of their predecessors.

There's a minimal level of intelligence required to use the green light, correct?

Yes. Fist units are designed to operate using direct energy infusion from a Guardian. As such, they are seldom deployed in field operations.

When are they deployed?

Historically, they were most frequently deployed as guards for the Guardians. In the modern era they have been supplanted in this role by the Honour Guard. Their most recent deployment was to apprehend First Lantern Sinestro.

If it needs a Guardian to pour energy into it and all the Guardians here are dead… Scan _very carefully_ for residual energy.

None found.

I wave Kon forwards and then follow on behind him. He heads towards the centre of the Guardian balcony on the far side of the room while I stop in the centre of the room. Ring, any systems we can connect to?

Ship systems appear intact but are inactive. Most likely cause is lack of power.

Current charge level?

Ninety five percent of normal maximum power available. / Ninety six percent charge available.

Doubt I can charge the ship by myself. Might need to bring my lantern down here later. Feeding a little power into the computer to get the logs can't hurt, though. Rings, begin power feed. Filaments extend from both rings to the 'floor' and 'ceiling'. Cut out when-

A surge of light erupts from the wall and floor, forming an orange tube around me! Um.

Massive power drain detected!

I bring my left fist around and slam it into the barrier around me! No effect.

Massive power drain detected!

Kon notices that something is wrong and slams into it from the outside. There's a tiny crack. Right, railgun-!

Looking directly down I see the Fist looking back up at me, eyes glowing orange.

**29th January  
06:16 GMT -11**

ShitShitShitShit!

"Intruder detected." The Fist straightens, bones and robes falling aside as it rises into the air. "Halt and surrender for judgement."

Kon turns away from me and prepares to lunge at it. "Surrender th-!"

**No! Superboy, don't!** He swings his head back around to stare at me. **It works for the Guardians. The worst it'll do is detain us until it can contact them. If you fight it… I don't know what it's weapons can do.**

Alert! Critical power drain!

Damn it! Will it consider firing a railgun round an offensive action? Kon lowers his fist as the Fist rises to our level. "Unfamiliar species detected. Unable to locate Guardians. Guardian remains detected. Damage to chronometer detected. Critical damage to ship systems detected." It stares directly at Kon. "Identify."

"I'm Superboy."

"Identify function."

"Search and rescue."

There's a brief pause as we wait for the Fist to respond. It keeps looking at Kon. "Identify function."

"I'm…" He glances at me and I nod. "I'm search and rescue too. We're here to try to get this ship off the seabed before anyone else finds it."

It keeps staring for a moment, then it turns away and reorientates itself to the floor. "Unable to determine societal technological level. Unable to determine status of cargo." Cargo? "Unable to render effective judgement. Negotiation: this unit will render assistance and nullify claims in exchange for repatriation of this vessel."

Alert! Critical power drain!

Darn. I was sort of hoping… "Fine. Just let me out."

"Answer."

"Yes!"

The Fist is now standing on the wall.. floor.. in front of the highest point of the Guardian podium. It turns back towards us. "Answer."

Kon stares at it in bemusement. "Yes! Can't you hear him-" It can't hear me. "-or something?"

My flickering and failing railgun construct fires a Crumbler round into the side of the orange shield imprisoning me. There's a spray of orange light as it fractures, cracks threading the area around the impact point. I shoot it again and a chunk disintegrates, leaving a hole big enough for me to fly-! _Fuck!_ Big enough for me to lunge at and fall out of! I fall about six metres, hit the side of the room and roll down towards where the Fist had been resting. Armour holds out. Barely felt that, actually. Well done armour. I take a moment to calm down. No flying means less than ten percent power. Bastard thing just stole nearly two complete ring charges worth of power!

"Identify."

I push myself up, trying to ignore the bones of the ships former owners as they crunch under my weight. The cylinder that held me fades as I stand. "I'm the chap this ship just tried converting into a power source!"

**Orange Lantern! Superboy! Are you alright?**

**Yesss… More or less.** Wait, if the ship just absorbed that much power… Please tell me it didn't all go into the Fist."Status of ship systems?"

"Glow manipulation detected."

Oh great, this thing really does predate Lanterns? "The Guardians created tools to allow younger races to duplicate their abilities." I raise my gauntlets in its direction to show it the rings as I activate my armour's flight belt. "The ship just sucked mine dry. Presumably that means that some systems are alive again."

"Confirmed. Stealth systems restored. Self repair systems restored."

"But not any of the drive systems?"

"Insufficient power for primary objective essential systems in addition to drive systems." Suddenly, down flips and I tumble into the wall-floor!

**Ow!** / **Whu-?**

"Interior gravity restored."

I pick myself up. Interestingly I can't feel Earth's gravity at all now. "Okay, I can just go back to the surface, grab my lantern and come back." **The robot's friendly. Cornwall, Miss Martian, get in here.** "Fist, is anyone else onboard?"

"All Guardians accounted for. All are recorded as deceased. All Fist units accounted for. All other units are recorded as irreparably damaged." It pauses. "Experimental subjects not accounted for."

"What experimental-" M'gann and Rob walk in through the door. "-subje-?"

"Confinement protocols engaged!" The Fist surges towards the doorway, swinging its right fist at M'gann! She dives aside, then is forced to fly to avoid its orange eyebeams! Rob thrusts out his arms and fires a blast of lightning directly into its torso at point blank range. No effect. "Arcane energy detected. Initiating countermeasures." It twists around and backhands Rob before he can evade. He slams into the wall at the side of the room, wincing as he lands.

**Superboy, get it."

"Rgaaagh!" Kon flies across the room, aiming at the Fist's back. An orange barrier appears for a second just before he strikes, robbing him of momentum. I generate a new railgun construct and track as the Fist spins aside, grabbing Kon's head as it goes. Kon's hands come up and take a grip of its left wrist.

M'gann comes up besides me. **What's it doing?! I thought you said-!**

**It just saw you and went crazy! Fists aren't sentient, feel free to use full force.**

The Fist tries to hurl Kon aside but he maintains his grip, slowly exerting force on the wrist joint. I can hear the sound of whatever it's made of getting crushed. The Fist releases the hold of its other hand, lifts Kon up and fires another blast from its eyes.

"Augh!" Kon loses his hold and goes flying across the room, a small part of the Fist's hand still in his grip. Across his chest I can see where the outer surface of his wetsuit was blasted aside. Looks like the mithril held.

I fire a Crumbler at the Fist and again an orange barrier appears before it can strike its chassis. The barrier fails but the robot beneath is unaffected. Guy and I found that ablative shields are just about the only effective defence against Crumblers, other than evading the shot.

Another beam from its eyes passes through M'gann as she phases to avoid it, cutting into the far wall. "Adapting vibrational-"

I jam my left hand in the beam's path. **Drain**.

Power at eight percent. Nine percent.

The beams cut out and the Fist flies at us. I thrust my arms forwards, triggering the belt's containment shield. I may not have Raquel's skill but I can manage a simple on/off control. A glowing blue bubble forms around the Fist as its own kinetic energy is absorbed by the barrier.

"Fist unit! Explain why-!"

Its left hand glows orange as a laser beams burns into the flight belt at my waist! I fall to the ground and the barrier around the Fist collapses. Rob's back on his feet, electrical energy crackling between his hands. The Fist shudders slightly -some sort of electrical induction?- and M'gann uses the opportunity to apply telekinetic force to its head. The right eye shatters into a whorl of orange motes as its head is forced back, then-

"AAgh!"

-M'gann slumps to the ground, clutching her head in pain.

"Subsonic feedback pulse active. Forceful telepathic disconnect will-"

Kon flies out, jinks under its left arm and comes up behind it, grabbing its neck in a choke hold!

**29th January  
06:20 GMT -11**

Can't choke a thing that doesn't breathe but the neck does seem like a structural weakness. **Cornwall, keep disrupting its internals. Miss Martian-**

"Wavelength isolated." Green light radiates out from the Fist and Kon shudders. Environmental shield. Fortunate that kryptonite radiation isn't strongly ionising. Environmental shields are 'cheap' to create and should be able to hold any bombardment the Fist will be able to put out almost indefinitely.

**-crush the other eye.** M'gann nods, her left hand coming up and her eyes glowing.

**Do you need help?**

Right, the Atlanteans aren't going to know what's happening. Time it would take them to get here..? **No. No time.** No way my armour is up to wrestling with the Fist, but if I can take some more power back… The humanoid forms gives it limited range of motion.

"Internals compensating." I hear its neck start to tear as its arms reach back, hands glowing with orange light. I bend into a crouch and power forwards. Kinestic processors don't fail me now! Distracted, the Fist doesn't react as I leap across the distance separating us and wrap my arms around its left forearm. My momentum causes my legs to swing past as my hands latch onto its hand. Drain! Light streams from its hand into the rings as my impact forces it to stagger back. "Power drain detected." The light around the hand I'm draining goes out. I'm still drawing a small amount of power, orange mist wafting from its eye and right hand. Kon ducks his head as it fires another blast from its right hand while M'gann hesitates.

**I can't get a grip! It's like it's immune to telekinesis!**

I drop an x-ionised knife out of subspace next to her. **Use this. **Carefully**.**

**Right.**

Blue light shines from Rob's direction as he charges up a fireball. The physics of those things are.. not something I understand. If it can-.

The Fist spins, rising in the air as it does so. The ring can easily keep my inner ear stabilised but I don't actually have a very good gri-. Agh! Blahgh! I slam into the far wall, bounce and hit the floor. Again I don't really feel the impact but I'm losing track of-. An alert flashes up on my HUD as something pierces the armour's outer plating on my right leg, cutting through and into the motive systems before stopping. That.. will impact my ability to move but it _could_ have taken my leg off. Why didn't it?

I can barely see Kon as the Fist continues spinning. He must still be holding onto the Fist's neck. Its main cognition systems are in its chest, but if he can breach the head I might be able to drain it further. Careful to make sure that as much of my weight as possible is kept off my right leg I get up again. Can't waste power on a railgun construct. I take a normal railgun out of subspace and load it with Crumbler rounds. It's not a _great_ weapon. I tried just using designs from Stewart ring's database but they're mostly designed to fire the grains of sand type projectiles Mass Effect weapons use and it's a lot harder to make them play nicely with the larger Crumbler or Mage Slayer rounds than it is a construct responding directly to my thoughts.

**Nnnnngaahhh!** Kon flies away from the Fist at speed, something grey and orange in his arms. The wall takes his impact without denting but he's slow to rise. The Fist doesn't even bother slowing its spinning as it powers towards M'gann again. She flies away from it, moving the x-ionised knife towards it and slashing at its approximate location. I see brief flares of orange where it intercepts with a barrier. I track and pull the trigger. Actual railguns don't so much hum as roar and I can feel it through the armour's sound dampening. Rob's fireball hits it from the far side at the same time as my round strikes home, one side awash with blue fire and the other with what looks like an orange dust cloud. Two seconds until I can fire again.

M'gann stabs at the orange dust side and is rewarded with a definite impact. The Fist tumbles in the air past her and she uses the opportunity to check up on Kon. He's groggy but it doesn't look like he's particularly hurt. The Fist stabilises, down a head and a neat cut clearly visible across its chest and left arm where the knife went in.

**AwaHH!** M'gann is knocked flying across the room as the eye on the head in Kon's grasp fires! Kon quickly turns it aside before jamming his right fore and middle fingers into the remaining eye socket, finally breaking the eye. Getting a better hold, his muscles bulge as he _**pulls**_, the head coming apart in his hands. A mote of orange light flies from it into the Stewart ring. Ring?

Eight percent power remaining.

**Miss Martian?**

**U_hhh_, aaaghhh…**

Something about that beam… Rob looks at me. "What now?"

I grimace and take a x-ionised knightly sword out of subspace. "Swift wind. You cut, I'll shoot."

"Right." The air around him bends as the spell takes effect. Drain! Motes of orange light flow from the Fist, but it still isn't enough. I suppose it makes sense that the species that built Central Power Batteries would be able to make well insulated robots. "Go!"

I pull the trigger again. His spell doesn't make him anything like Kid Flash fast but it does let him outpace a World Record holding sprinter and generally not worry about his momentum. He's already grabbed the sword out of the air as my Crumbler strikes the Fist. This time it can't quite manage a full barrier and its outer armour gets etched as if by acid. It brings up its arms for another shot at M'gann but Rob has already cleared the intervening space, ducking under them and slicing through its chest plate with a single sweep as he runs by. There's a sudden flash of orange along the line and I pull as much of it into the rings as I can before firing again. The Fist intercepts with its glowing left hand. The glow breaks and Rob's back, slicing through the palm. The Fist's fingers spasm slightly as they hit the deck.

Its right hand glows and I'm forced to burn ring power to shield myself as it takes a laser-

Phased particle beam.

-phased particle beam shot at my railgun. I try moving the end of the railgun but the beam stays perfectly on target.

Alert! Seven percent power remaining.

Great. I drop a Crumbler micro-missile out of subspace and the beam moves aside for a half second to destroy it. Kon's back on his feet and M'gann… I can't see M'gann. Rob runs back in and takes a swipe at the already damaged forearm. The Fist pivots in the air and smashes him across the stomach with it instead.

"_**Fwraah!**_" Rob's spell bursts and he collapses to the ground, gasping for air. I stick a filament on the sword before it can cut through the deck as Kon flies at the Fist again. It tries to bring up its damaged hand for a shot at his belt but nothing happens. Realising the level of damage the Fist turns the move into a roll, aiming to get out of Kon's path and strike as he moves past. The beam's off me now but I can't get a safe shot! As the Fist rolls Kon triggers his belt's kinetic barrier bringing it to a sudden halt. Before it can reposition he drops the barrier again and ploughs into it, striking the slash across its chest at full speed. The Fist is shoved backwards about two metres before stabilising, Kon already shoving his palms into the tear and straining to pull it apart. Something gives and a surge of orange smashes into his chest, propelling him into the ceiling and pinning him there! The Fist struggles to redirect and the walls of the room buckle where it points!

I shove the railgun back into subspace and wave my arms. "Shoot me! Shoot me! I can absorb it!"

I don't know if he heard me. It isn't reacting, though. I rise to my feet and stagger towards it, trying to pull the venting orange light back into the rings. Off to my right the ceiling gives way and the Fist shifts the orange beam before it can cut through the wall beyond. I can't move quick enough. _Think_.

The drain tube thing it used on me! Ring, can we activate that?

System is available.

Okay, the Fist is about three metres away. I try grabbing it with a filament but it gets consumed by the flood of orange light. I try a thicker beam but I can't get a grip on the bloody thing!

**Got you!** The floor behind the Fist flows upwards as M'gann wraps herself around it, x-ionised knife cutting into its functional arm which falls dead.

I use the ring to highlight the area of the floor with the draining mechanism. **Miss Martian, get it _there_!**

What look like giant flea legs grow out of her back and push the two of them across the room. As the two of them hurtle out of control she shifts, flows and moves her mass around to throw it at the indicated spot while she lands safely. Wait for it wait for it **now**! Ring, activate the drain system! The orange cylinder reappears, the orange light blasting from the Fist's chest being easily absorbed by the ship's systems. It tries to regain its feet, stumbles and collapses as the last of its energy bursts through its frame, disintegrating it.

**29th January  
06:23 GMT -11**

I hobble a little closer to where the remains of the Fist gently smoulder inside the cylinder. Deciding that the Fist has been fully juiced the cylinder shuts down, dropping them onto the bridge's floor. Darn it, I was really hoping I could come out of this with a robot bodyguard.

"Aweh, fucking **hell**." Rob winces as he sits up, cradling his chest. "How'd you tell if you broke a rib?"

"If it hurts when you breathe, more than normal." I look over at my other injured team mate. "Superboy, how are you doing?"

He pushes a section of bridge wall aside and delicately walks back in. "Just bruises. I'll be fine."

**Miss Martian, nicely done. Are we still linked?** She nods and then goes to check Kon over. **Robot dealt with, no serious injuries aaaand…** I do a quick scan of the accessible area of the ship. **No hull breaches. Anything interesting happen outside?**

**There's a pod of whales a few kilometres away. I think pushing the sediment and plankton away might be attracting them.** There's a little frustration in Garth's mental voice but he's keeping it under control. **Nothing aside from that.**

**Right.** I look at Rob. **Cornwall, I'm on low power, but if you think your rib is-.**

**Nah, don't worry.** He pulls a small vial out of an armoured leg pouch. **See if this works…** He unscrews the lid and downs the contents.

**What's.. that..?**

**Healing potion.**

I blink. **You have a healing potion?**

**Yeah, Kid Flash gave it to me before Christmas.**

**_Kid Flash_ has healing potions?**

He looks at me with a slight frown, then his eyes widen in understanding. **Oh that's right! You were out with Zatanna when he told everyone about it. Yeah, it's pretty good. I mean, it's not, like, an instant fix for everything, but…** He gingerly presses his chest with his left hand while putting the bottle back with his right. **It speeds up normal healing a lot. And I heal pretty quick anyway. Think it was just cracked.** He clambers back onto his feet.

I had.. meant.. to spend more time with Wallace, helping him with the whole alchemy thing. It's just.. what with Nabu and everything… **I think I should probably talk to him about that when we get back.**

Kon gives me a narrow smile. **Maybe he just doesn't want you to share it with _Luthor_.**

**That's fine, but I funnel a lot of the stuff I work on that isn't Lex-safe through Theodore Kord.** No recognition. **Kord Tech? The.. building the.. New York zeta tube is on-** He nods, getting it. **-top of?**

M'gann looks at the piles of remains. **Why did it attack us? It wasn't aggressive.. until…**

Rob nods. **Until you and me walked in.**

**Which means either it didn't like Martians or it didn't like magic.**

Rob shakes his head. **No, it didn't know I was a magic user. It only said 'arcane energy detected' after I shot it with lightning.** He looks at M'gann. **Have the Martians had anything to do with the Guardians?**

She looks at the floor in thought. **No. I hadn't even heard of Green Lanterns until we started getting messages from Uncle J'onn.**

**That's a little odd. If you ignore Earth there are only eleven different intelligent species in this sector. I'd have.. thought someone from Mars would have been recruited at _some_ point.**

**I don't think so.**

**You're a race of shapeshifting telepaths.** Kon shrugs. **Maybe they don't think you need power rings as well?**

Guardians and Martians. Oh heck. "Ring, are the ship's computers available?"

"Access available. Warning: records severely damaged."

"Can you get me a date?"

"Unable to match calendars." In the centre of the room an orange construct image of a planet appears. Small, rocky and with liquid water covering a large part of the surface. I don't immediately recognise it but it isn't as if I've memorised every inhabited planet in the universe. My team gathers around it. "Image displayed is the most recent intact planetary scan prior to the ship's systems becoming damaged."

I take a closer look. There appear to be… Are those impact craters?

"I don't suppose there's a name for it in there, is there?"

"Planet listed as 'Ma'aleca'andra'."

"Never heard of it. I don't suppose you've got that on file somew-?"

**Mars.** The three of us turn to M'gann. She's got so close to the image that her face is nearly touching it, gazing at it in wonder. **It's.. Mars. See these mountains here? These are what Humans call Xanthe Montes. My Uncle Ma'al lives near here.**

Kon frowns. **But… Mars is…**

**This ship… The Guardians must have visited it before the surface turned into a desert!** She beams excitedly at us. **This is **great**! The Guardians might have records of-!** She cuts herself off as realisation hits. **This _**ship**_ might have records of what Mars was like when the surface was still habitable!**

**Uuum. I wouldn't get too excited. The ring said-.**

**Even if this ship is too badly damaged, we can just ask the Guardians!** She turns around and grabs Kon around the waist and he smiles in response to her obvious enthusiasm. **We lost so much of our history, it would be amazing if we could get it back!**

Rob turns away from the globe to look at me. **Do you think.. whatever turned Mars into a wasteland… Could be what wrecked this ship?**

**Could be.** "Ring, assuming that planet is Mars, can you recover enough data to work out an approximate date?"

"Processing." Construct images of various pieces of text the ring isn't translating appear around us. Shit, am I under five percent already? The text disappears. "Image displayed approximately twenty thousand Earth years ago, plus or minus two hundred years, with a probability of ninety seven percent."

M'gann turns back to us and nods. **That's about when our archaeologists say it must have happened! This is going to be so great!**

"Ring, can you tell what this ship was doing here?"

"Purpose listed as 'prisoner transportation'."

M'gann sobers slightly. **If it was transporting Martian prisoners… The robot must have thought I was one of them.**

"Ring, can you access a picture of one of these prisoners?"

"Partial reconstruction available." The image of a green Mars vanishes and is replaced by one of a humanoid figure. We look at it for a moment.

M'gann frowns and shakes her head. **That's… That's not a Martian.**

**29th January  
06:27 GMT -11**

It _is_, but I can see why she'd think that. The skull-like head modern Martians have is far narrower and taller. The softer segments around the throat and the back of the head are absent, as are the underarm membranes. Never really understood what they were about. The harder parts of the torso are more obviously armoured and the structure of the feet make it more obvious that it was designed to grasp just as well as the forelimbs were. The legs and arms are far shorter and noticeably thicker and the whole creature looks much tougher.

Not that physical resilience is really the problem when you try and fight them.

Rob shrugs. **Some sort of.. Cave Martian?**

Kon looks at M'gann. **If there's white, green and red Martians now, maybe there used to be other kinds as well?**

She frowns. **I suppose.**

Ring, how may of those was this ship carrying?

Unable to recover data.

Ooooh dear. Ring, analyse general tone of content; did the Guardians have a huge fight with the Burning Martians and reprogram them into modern Martians?

Supposition fits available data. However, no firm conclusion can be reliably drawn.

I check my mental barriers again. Alright, Martians here follow 'real' biology far more than what I remember from the comics. They need to eat. Guardians **don't**. There's very little chance that this ship has a hydroponics section. It _might_ have some sort of matter replicator but the ship's been on low power for a very long time.

**Can you fly this ship?**

I look back at Rob. **I might be able to command the ship to fly itself, certainly.** But thanks to me the power's back on. I look back in the direction of the rest of the ship, amping up my empathic vision. I can't even see the dots that should be there for Garth and Tula. **But I'd rather check the whole ship out first. And the computer's a mess anyway. I'm not _keen_on the idea of relying on it.**

**Um. Your leg alright, mate? You were sort of limping there.** Rob looks down at my damaged leg. **I've got another potion if you want it?**

**The Fist shot out one of the motors. Didn't actually hit my flesh.** "Ring, charge remaining?"

"Six percent."

I focus for a second and fix the leg. Don't know how much good armour will do against a potentially crazy Martian but I'm going to need to be able to _move_. I take a moment to test the motion, looking for a moment like a man interviewing for a grant from the Ministry of Silly Walks. I'd like to go back to the surface and recharge but I can't because the ship is functional and any Burning Martian on board could have learned how to operate it from the minds of the Guardians before they died. We need to do a sweep now and hope they died centuries ago. "Ring, can you get me an internal schematic?"

"Partial schematic available."

The Burning Martian disappears and is replaced with a hollow model of the ship. Parts of the insides are missing but there's a reasonably clear path towards the rear of the ship and the last power source. **Superboy, take point. Miss Martian, keep yourself invisible and listen out for any minds around us. Cornwall, can you keep that wind spell going?**

**Yeah.**

**Then do so.** I take three neural chaff grenades out of subspace and attach them to the outside of my armour. Not sure how much use they'll be. Do I try asking the Guardians for information again? No, this isn't just a lack of knowledge, this is something they've actively covered up. **Assume that any further Fist units encountered are hostile. And if there _are_surviving Martians, don't take any chances. Guardians don't have people arrested on a whim and they don't show up _themselves_ unless the people they're arresting are **very dangerous**.** I look over at the bones and then check to make sure that my team mates understand the implication. **Martians can go invisible, shapeshift, manipulate their environments with telekinesis and are telepathic.** I think for a moment and then take two more chaff grenades out of subspace, handing one each to Rob and Kon. **If you see a Martian that isn't _ours_, use it.**

M'gann frowns. **But if they've been stuck down here-.**

**Then we can say sorry _after_ we've got them under control. I doubt the Guardians made this ship phase proof for fun.**She doesn't look happy about it, but she nods and then fades from view. "Ring, do the doors work now, or am I still going to have to manually open every one?"

"Door mechanisms operational."

I nod to Kon and then gesture to the open door with my right hand. He nods and floats towards the opening. I _could_ get another belt out of subspace for myself, but that would eat an entire percent and I just can't justify it.

**Orange Lantern, are you sure that you don't want Aquagirl and I inside?**

**'Sure' would be a little strong but neither of you have any particular resistance to telepathy. Any changes to the ship?**

The door to the main corridor opens just ahead of Kon, revealing a wide thoroughfare with large open rooms on either side. I'm not sure what used to be here but whatever it was has been thoroughly trashed.

**There's a slight orange glow in some places.**

**Some of the holes are closing up.** Tula sends a mental picture of the before and after. **The small ones on the interior. I think the edges of the larger holes are healing themselves as well.**

**Self repair, okay, that's not entirely surprising.** Could a Burning Martian survive in the arctic waters? M'gann can easily, but she's not on fire. The temperature out there is only minus two. **Get away from the breach-** Rob walks past me as Kon ventures across the burned and broken machinery. **-and seal it with ice.** It can't phase through the hull. I doubt that the ship will let it out through the glowing orange portal I made. That fracture… **Actually, can you put some sort of ward around it that will let you know if something comes out of it?**

**We can do that. Shouldn't take long.**

**I don't suppose you know a spell for phase resistant barriers, do you?**

**Uh. Maybe? There are a few spells that do things like that, but they've never been tested against a Martian.**

**Try your best.**

**What were they.. doing here?** What looks like a Martian skull floats up out of one of the piles of debris. Empathic vision shows me M'gann looking at it. **Is that..? Some sort of operating table?**

Kon turns over some wreckage, revealing two large parts of what looks suspiciously like a surgical bed. He shoves them aside and then picks up some sort of robotic surgical arm. **What were they doing here?** He turns and looks across the chamber. **There's got to be _dozens_ of them.**

**Anything alive?**

He looks at me, confused. **But-?**

**Anything alive?**

He looks around the room. **No?**

**Then we press on. Finding out what the Guardians were doing here isn't our job.** I spot what appears to be a severed Fist arm amongst the wreckage. The cut was made in a straight line but the surface is rough, as if someone sawed through it. **Once we've got the ship out of here, feel free to ask them. Until then, our job is getting the ship out without the United States and Russia finding out, and that's what we're going to do.**

**29th January  
06:36 GMT -11**

I look out into the ocean. I can't tell if this section of hull was designed to be transparent from the interior or if this is some sort of projection. If it's a projection then I don't know why the ship's autonomous systems have prioritised it. Or why it wasn't destroyed along with so many of the ship's other internal structures. Some sort of fish… Ah, not a window then. It's a grey/brown flat fish, but rather than propel itself with its fins it appears to utilise some sort of organic ion drive. Moves quite a lot faster than Earth fish and has pretty little flickers of light visible through its skin before it launches itself.

After we finished with what I'm referring to as the surgical bay we saw the holding cells. Some were torn open while others were still intact. Those had remains in them.

"Nice fish." I glance at Rob as he comes up alongside me. "Any chance I could keep this sword after the mission?"

"Cornwall, it's a classified project by the American military. **I'm** not supposed to have it. If you start waving it around-."

"Right, but I was thinking…" He holds the blade in his left hand and points at the blade with his right. "If you put runes on it, then anyone looking at it would think it was _magic_ and not… Whatever they really did to make it this sharp."

"You could always get an _actual_ magic sword."

"They all as temperamental as the one Beowulf used?"

"You know, there's no hard evidence that anyone of that name ever used it."

He looks horrified. "_What?_ I've been telling everyone-."

**Okay, I'm… I'm ready.**

We turn back around to where M'gann is leaning on Kon. Under the circumstances I can well understand how she's finding this all a bit overwhelming.

**If you're sure?** She nods, rises up into the air and shimmers back into invisibility. I point towards the leftmost door at the rear of the section. He nods and heads towards it with some speed. He wants to get this finished as quickly as possible. My team mates have heard me describe the Guardians in less than entirely flattering terms before but that was a lot of remains back there. I _could_ tell them what I think I know, just say I got it from the ship's computers or something… But I haven't been able to confirm it. Guardians _have_ gone off the rails before… Maybe that was what happened here?

The door opens in response to Kon's approach. Another long corridor with large cylinders along… Yes, that's the outer hull. The cylinders are a metre and a half in diameter and about four metres tall and all show signs of damage. Some of the more intact ones glow with a faint orange light. I'm… I've got no idea what they're supposed to do. Kon shakes his head. **I don't see anything.**

**And I can't feel any minds. How close are we to the power source?**

**At the end of the corridor, there should be a round room. It's in there. If there are any survivors, that's where they'll be.**

Kon glances at me. **You really think we'll find anyone?**

I shrug as we resume our journey. **I don't think it's particularly likely. Whatever they were doing here, this clearly wasn't a warship. They might well not have bothered creating any sort of emergency life preservation system.**

**What were they..? I know you said I shouldn't worry about it, but all those bodies…**

**Could be anything. Could be there was a major disease outbreak and they were offering emergency medical care. Could be they were studying your species for some reason. We don't have enough information.**

**They were all one type. None of the three colors of modern Martian look like that. Do you think.. they were going extinct.. and the Guardians tried to preserve them?**

**It's quite possible. We've really got no way to tell.**

**We've finished the wards on the hull.** Through Tula's eyes I see faintly glowing lines floating just over the hull. **I can't guarantee they'll work but they're the best we can come up with.**

**Good work. Miss Martian, do you know how old the current Martian magic using tradition is?**

**Not.. exactly. Less than twenty thousand years, though. I don't.. understand why you think they'll be hostile. If there's a Martian survivor, I mean.**

**I don't. I'm just preparing for the worst.**

We're halfway along the room and from the looks of things some of the components around us have been dismantled with a little more focus by someone using the same technique as whoever sliced up that Fist. I haven't seen a tool that could have been used to do that, Guardians would have disassembled in a more even manner and Fists wouldn't have damaged the ship's systems without a Guardian instructing them. No way for me to tell _when_ it happened…

Kon comes to a halt just before triggering the next door. I create a construct of the room we're coming up to. Circular with small rooms coming off it. Cells, maybe? **Hey, I was.. wondering.** I look at him. **If the Guardians have records on what Mars was like, would they have records on Krypton?**

**Yes. Lantern Stewart's ring only really had a summary, but if you want a copy I can stick it on a data stick when we get back.**

He nods. **Yeah, I would. Thanks.** He takes a breath. **Everyone ready?** Two nods and he steps forwards, bent slightly and fists raised. The door opens, revealing a mess of bodged together equipment. A cylinder like the ones we just walked past stands in the centre of the room, glowing faintly with pale green energy. Another lies against the far side of the room as if hurled there, more of the unusual cuts torn into the material. Of the twelve small chambers seven are slashed open. Another four have skeletal remains inside. The window to the last pod is completely opaque.

Okay. The last cylinder is mounted on some sort of energy transfer platform. There are slashes on the floor corresponding to the four malfunctioned pods. Some sort of stasis device, perhaps? There were other rooms like this on the schematic. Maybe this was where the Guardians stored them prior to the procedure? They couldn't control the emotional spectrum but they _could_ manually transfer internal energy batteries. If one of them was intelligent enough to jury rig the system-

The cylinder lying on the floor thrums quietly. Once, twice, then a faint orange glow starts to shine from the right end before flowing across the floor. There's a confused section where the orange and green lights run into each other before the green area appears to flow backwards into the cylinder.

**I can hear someone! The last pod! There's a mind!**

**Wait.** I… I can't see anything past the doorway. Guardians would certainly be able to block my abilities. Maybe it's one of them? But just in case… I take my railgun back out of subspace, load it with a Crumbler round and walk over to the orange cylinder. Drain. The orange glow runs through the air and into Stewart ring.

Total power reserves at five percent.

As with the green cylinder the orange glow that had been spreading across the room runs backwards into the orange cylinder and then into the ring. I hear a thump and then the window onto the chamber shifts to translucency. "Stand ready. Miss Martian, inform whoever is in there that we're friendly."

**Hello? Are you hurt?** Empathic vision shows that she wants to get closer. Fortunately she's staying back. I _really_ hope she learned her lesson from the first Bialya mission. **We're here to help.**

**hELP?**

Ooh. That.. felt.. odd. Almost.. crackly? I suppose that a cave Martian wouldn't necessarily have the same language skills as a modern Martian.

Alright. Let's find out how lucky we are. Ring, open the door.

Compliance.

The door slides aside and I can see a figure within, a little taller than M'gann and crouched as if to protect-.

FUCK I'M ON FIRE!

**29th January  
06:41 GMT -11**

I'm burning inside my armour! I can't see! I need-! No. Burning Martian. False mind technique. Move… Arm… Activate the grenade!

**rGHGHGH!**

"AAAAAAAAAAHH!" M'gann's collapsed to the ground, fully visible. Visions of fire are just about the worst thing you can do to a normal Martian and she'd have _felt_ the burning just as I did.

"_Hhhhurrrrr._" Kon's shuddering with the pain but he's still standing and grasping for _his_ grenade. Rob's silent, curled up on the floor.

The Burning Martian stares at me, its eyes points of pale red light in a scab red face. There are slowly oozing cuts in its chest which it's covering with its right hand. It looks like it has some sort of exoskeleton, or at least a very tough epidermis. It _isn't_actually on fire, but there's an almost heat shimmer like effect in the air just above its skin. It's eyes flick to M'gann for a second. **wEAK oNE. gIVE mE eVERYTHING.**

Sounds like a bad guy to me. Ring, brand.

A filament extends from the ring and stabs at its head-

Unable to establish connection.

-and evaporates as it touches its skin.

**I am not _**weak**_!** M'gann staggers to her feet, eyes glowing.

"Cornwall, you still with us?"

"U_h_uuughuh?" His head comes up slightly.

I face the Burner. "Martian, stand down we will put-."

Its left arm swings out, elongating as it does so, the surface of the skin seeming to shimmer and waver as it does so. I stick up a construct barrier to block it and it holds for about half a second before giving way where the clawed fingers gouge at it. The Burner pulls its arms back and then swings at me again but this time I have the railgun on target. Aim, pull the trigger and the Crumbler round strikes it directly in the palm. The air around the impact point seems to shudder and the Burner yanks its arm back. The hand.. is still intact. It must have somehow altered the crumble field. Reload solid slug.

**tELL mE!** What's it looking-? Rob! **tHIRD pLANET? wORLD oF wEAK mINDED oNES?**

I pull another grenade off my armour and throw it at the Burner. Rob hasn't had any sort of training in resisting telepathy. I don't know what it knows and I don't want it to get any more information than it already has. Its head turns back as I release and the grenade stops in mid air. Oh yes? I attach a filament to the grenade and shove it forwards. The Burner's eyes open slightly wider and I feel the resistance grow. Close enough. I ready myself and then remotely trigger the grenade. Yep, still felt it but not as badly as the Burner did. It staggers back, glow vanishing from its eyes and showing the burning dot pupil with red pupil on red sclera beneath.

**dEPENDENCY!**

**Why are you doing this?** M'gann is a little more used to the chaff grenades, though I don't think she would be capable of any great feats of mentation for a few seconds. **What did the Guardians do to you?**

**tRIED tO mAKE uS wEAK. sLAVES.** Its eyes glow again and I see Guardians floating through the air over ancient Mars, green beams of light fired from their hands blasting into the Martians below. The Martians alter their shapes to charge them in the air but Fists move to intercept them. One of the Guardians turns towards my viewpoint and the image fades. **I!sURVIVE!** Then it.. moves. It doesn't fly so much as yank itself across the intervening space directly at Kon, its left arm grabbing him by the top of his head.

"Grugh!" He reaches up to grasp its wrist just as the heat shimmer effect intensifies. "G**aaah**!" He tears the hand away, revealing his smouldering hair and the burn mark its left across his forehead.

"Cornwall. Sword." I take another out of subspace for myself as Rob picks himself up, eyes fixed on our opponent.

Kon releases the Burner's wrist with his left hand, makes a fist and swings it at the Burner. It passes straight through and the Burner uses its phased state to reclaim its left hand. Next it slashes at his chest. Kon tries to back-pedal but the Burner's hand cleaves a path through his armour and into the flesh beneath.

**uNWORTHY.**

**Stop it!**

M'gann's eyes go to full glow and the Burner jerks back. I send a filament out to the shocked Kon and try and evaluate his injury. The claw went right through the mithril and into his skin and the muscle beneath. Bleeding looks bad but with sunlight and Danner formula he should be fine in a few hours. I can't just zap-heal him without nullifying his resilience first and that isn't a good idea here.

I raise my railgun again and fire at the Burner's centre of mass, the round passing clean through and disintegrating part of the wall beyond. Fuck it. Load prototype anti-phasing rounds. "Cornwall, try freezing it."

"I'm not-! Okay. Umm…" He stows the sword and brings his hands together, crystals of ice appearing between them. I don't remember how good he is at freezing things and I don't know if freezing phased objects is even possible. Ring, attempt to scan for phase modulation-.

Operation may exceed remaining energy reserves.

Of course it will. Got enough for a phased particle beam like the Fist used?

One shot will reduce reserves to one percent.

Okay. Set the modulation-.

**rHHHHHHHH!** The Burner charges through the air at M'gann, the fingers of its left hand lengthening and sharpening to slice through her!

Her own form shifts as she propels herself to meet it, right forearm changing into a protean mass and wrapping itself around the Burner's wrist. **You can't burn through **me**!**

The Burner begins changing again, spines forming across its body as it tries to pull M'gann in to a full grapple. A flash of white as Rob's spell activates in the middle of the Burner's chest. It throws its head back gasping and M'gann takes full advantage of the situation to envelop it further.

Right, okay, I've got a moment. Think about this. Ring, status of that pod.

Pod appears fully functional. However, insufficient power is available for it to function.

That cylinder looks fine using orange light instead of green. I can't give it more from the rings because I don't have enough to make any difference. I can't just set the green one to go back to powering it because it can't compete with all the orange. There's lots of orange but it's in the rest of the ship. "Superboy, get the green cylinder off the platform!"

**bURN yOU aAAALL!**

****No**. **You**. **Won't**.** The Burner manifests additional blades and M'gann counters by transforming her outer surface into hard plates as it strikes at her, sharpened edges skittering off.

I hurry over and kneel down next to the fallen cylinder. I've got no idea if I can-. Wait. A filament connecting it to the other cylinders _should_ let me draw power through them into it. Then I can cut off the flow and it's not like we really need the ships other systems to be operational at the moment. There will almost certainly be energy loss but we really just need it to keep going until I can get my lantern down here. I lay my right hand on the cylinder and extend a filament through each of the doors towards the parts of the ship we've already been through. Assuming a symmetrical design… Yes, okay. Connect. Kon grimaces in pain as he heaves the green cylinder out of the middle of the room and sets it down. Rings, access shipwide power and redirect into this cylinder. If you can work out what its capacity is, don't exceed that.

Compliance.

The Stewart ring and the filaments connected to it sparkle with orange light as the glow within the cylinder begins to increase. "Superboy, I need you and Cornwall to get this onto the pedestal." Kon tears his eyes away from M'gann's wrestling match and he and Rob approach me. "That end's the bottom. Superboy lift, Cornwall balance it."

"Right." / "Okay."

Kon bends at the knees as M'gann and the Burner slam into a wall on the far side of the room. His blood is soaking through the material of his wetsuit in a way which… No, he can lie down when the fight's over. He lifts and the cylinder rises onto its base as I maintain the energy flow. Once it's vertical he takes a grip and heaves it off the ground, bending slightly backwards. Rob takes hold as well, trying not to look at the Martian melee. "This way, mate."

It can't phase through the walls. It can't act while the system is active and if the cylinders can last twenty thousand years they can last half an hour. We just need to get it in there. Kon drops the cylinder into place with a pained exhalation. Ring, isolate power and redirect to the chamber. Also, cease translation.

Compliance.

Really hope M'gann can still hear. "Miss Martian, get it back in the cell!"

The Martian mass turns and-. It looks like M'gann's tried to envelope the Burner entirely. She's certainly wrapped around its legs as she uses a combination of staggered steps and telekinesis to bring it closer.

**rAAAHHH!**

The Burner's head is still recognisably a head. I bring the railgun up again. Ring, match the modulation to the one the Fist was using. Low power.

Compliance.

I aim at it's head and pull the trigger. Even at low power the shot has enough force to cover the distance before I can blink. It strikes the Burner right in the forehead. It jerks and M'gann suddenly begins moving faster. "Cornwall, prepare another freeze spell."

We manoeuvre out of M'gann's way as she completes the journey across the room and starts peeling herself away. The Burner has shifted into something that looks like Malchemical in full combat mode. "Cornwall, soon as you get a shot." The Burner wakes up enough to grab for the walls on either side of the door but M'gann's eyes glow again and start pushing it through. Another flash of white and it loses its grip entirely, flying through and hitting the back wall hard. Ring, close the door and activate the system.

The door slides shut as the Burner gets back to its feet. Come on, that door isn't claw proof! The light inside dims as the Burner rushes the door, claws extended, and the last thing it sees is the four of us sagging with relief.

**29th January  
07:35 GMT -11**

I lift my lantern up slightly. "You know sir, after this I'm seriously reconsidering my decision not to bring my lantern with me on missions."

Mister J'onzz doesn't respond as we continue through the Maltusian spaceship in the direction of the stasis pods. After stopping the Burner escaping we did a quick sweep of the rest of the ship. More Martian bodies, along with a few wrecked Fists. The Fists were wrecked in an approximate perimeter around a large number of Martians, but they'd been destroyed facing outwards, apparently defending them. From the shape and position of the remains of those they'd been protecting it looked worryingly like they hadn't been Burners. They had the wider skulls and thinner limbs of modern Martians. Killing things that were different in some sort of frantic attempt to expunge 'weakness'.

"Will you be able to move the ship?"

I nod as we walk along one of the energy cylinder corridors. Unlike the one my team walked down on the way in the cylinders here have clearly been moved. Presumably the last few Burners were subbing them in to keep the stasis system working. "Should be. I don't have records on how to repair this technology, but I can… Feed power into the ship to get it into orbit and then charge up a few of the energy storage units." I slowly breathe out. How do I want to put this? "Question is, where do we want to send it?"

"I do not know. I am deeply disturbed by what you have found here. The knowledge that the Guardians have concealed the role they played in my species' development is something that will concern all of Mars."

**Orange Lantern to team. Any change?**

**No, the cylinder's still glowing. …** I feel her hesitate. **Hey.. Uncle J'onn.**

**M'gann.** Unlike M'gann, Mister J'onzz ceases making facial expression when he engages in telepathic communication. I suppose that Martians don't have very expressive faces in their default forms. **I trust you are well?**

**I'm fine.**

**Orange Lantern told me that you engaged the.. 'Burning Martian' in hand to hand combat.**

**Yeah, I… It wasn't.. really.. _burning_, it just looked like it was. It was actually a controlled molecular destabilisation technique.**

**I.. was not aware that you knew how to counter those.**

What with Henry taking over M'gann's telepathy training and with his League responsibilities, Mister J'onzz hasn't been spending nearly as much time with M'gann as he used to. **I… J'onn J'aarkn.. gave me some of his records. They've really helped with my development.**

**I.. see.**

I _hear_ her eyes widen. **Just what he's learned about shapeshifting! Not-.**

**I had assumed that was what you meant.**

**Oh. … Good.**

**I am surprised that the Burning Martian was able to utilise such a sophisticated form of shape control. From Orange Lantern's description I had received the impression that it was a savage brute.**

**Oh, it was savage alright. But it was far from stupid.**

The door to the stasis room is still open. As far as I can tell the ship doors only respond to emotional spectrum triggers so I just left them all open when I went back to the Fortress.

Kon is sitting on the floor and looks up as we come into view, M'gann standing next to him. **Hey.** He touches the burned area of his forehead and winces. **You got any idea why I haven't healed yet? I thought the.. Danner Formula included regeneration.**

**The Formula only grants your Human components regeneration. Your skin is entirely Kryptonian.** I fly ahead of Mister J'onzz and land besides him, giving his burns a quick scan. **Thanks to Helios you should be fine in time for school on Monday.**

**And… My hair?**

I look at the bald stripe. **Sorry. I could… Shave the rest off to even it up..?**

He looks down. **Yeah.** M'gann pats his hand.

Rob, Garth and Tula more or less come to attention as Mister J'onzz approaches the stasis chamber containing the Burner. Attention isn't really a thing in Atlantis. It just isn't practical to do under water. Interesting that they've picked up on it. He looks impassively at the opaque window in the door. In my absence they've surrounded it with spells designed to promote good mechanical function and imprisonment.

For a second Mister J'onzz' eyes glow, presumably trying to feel the mind trapped within. A moment later he turns away. "Have you been able to extract any further information on exactly what the Guardians were doing?"

M'gann shakes her head. "They were very thorough in destroying the Fists of the Guardians. There were hardly any intact parts bigger than my fist."

I look at the larger pieces of debris they've brought in and send a filament to check. Nope, nothing I can use. Mister J'onzz nods, looking at the green cylinder. "Perhaps the Green Lanterns can extract something."

"Is that something you really want to involve them in, sir? Given who they work for?"

"You have an alternate suggestion?"

"I turned A-." Ah heck, it's not like he'll care. "Alan's personal lantern orange. No reason why I shouldn't be able to convert _that_ to orange."

"Why do you wish to conceal this from them?"

"Why do the Guardians want to hide it from _you_?" I think for a moment. "I think it's.. best that the Guardians don't find out that you know until the Martian government has decided what you want to do about this. Since I don't plan to move in…" I look around the room. "And since I doubt that decision making process will be especially fast, this ship needs to go somewhere now-ish. We can transfer out all the Martian remains then I can send it to Maltus."

"No. That would be unnecessarily confrontational."

"Sir, the surface of your world died at about the same time this ship was around here. From what we've been able to recover they had thorough scans of its pre-devastated state. If they.. really.. turned the.. Burners into modern Martians… Why didn't they fix it afterwards?" His eyes narrow slightly. "As far as I can tell, these cylinders are data recorders as well as power batteries. Let me assimilate that one. If the Burners were just some.. now extinct offshoot of your species and.. the Guardian involvement was incidental, send the ship to Oa. If not…"

He turns to regard the cylinder, its pale green glow illuminating his face. "I suppose… It would not hurt to have all of the facts at our disposal before making a decision."

"Thank you, sir." I spread out my hands to either side and send filaments forwards to attach themselves to the cylinder. Rings, corrupt and convert.

Compliance.

Orange light spreads outwards from the attachment points, the weak green glow being consumed and converted. Ring, extract data and filter for content.

An orange image of a Guardian appears just in front of the cylinder. "…difficulties, I continue to believe that rehabilitation is possible. Preserving the natives in their own habitat will be.. _somewhat_ difficult now…" The image glitches. "…increasing sophistication. It is almost as if our presence here has provoked them to unify. How groups with whom we have not had direct contact are even aware of us I am not…" Another glitch, and the Guardian is replaced by a time lapsed image of the surface of Mars. "Simply destroying the natives and recreating them using genetic samples would be far easier. Still, we are resolved not to resort to such methods, even…" The image jumps forwards. "I did not properly anticipate the damage this conflict would cause to the planet's surface." We watch as chunks of surface are scoured of plant life. "The combination of telepathy and physical mutability enable them to fight us with surprising effectiveness, given their lack of technological…"Another glitch, and the map now shows the modern, barren Mars. A new Guardian appears. "…resettled into cave systems we constructed in areas already cleared. We have avoided leaving any trace..." Another glitch. "… different forms. The 'red' variant is least modified, though all three colours possess the comportment and empathy we were aiming to engender. Their natural telepathy means that the control system will be passed from one generation to the next in the womb without the need for constant intervention. Time will tell which…" A series of flickers."… y colleagues have expressed concern that our modifications have reduced their aggression in too great an extent. Our predictive models show that it is possible that their civilisation will remain introverted as a result. Self isolating. Having reviewed the data in depth I have recommended a continual monitoring-" A new image appears, this time of the Burner we encountered an hour ago. "…intelligence, unusual in its kind. I will attempt to initiate mental contact. Perhaps we will be able to complete the conversion peacefully when they see that we have their best interests at heart?"

Or not. I shut the image down and turn to Mister J'onzz. "That's all the log entries-."

"It is sufficient." Ooh sugar. I can see the red light boiling within his usually placid psyche. "Take what you can and then send the ship to Maltus. I will explain the situation to Batman."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

**29th January  
08:02 GMT -11**

_Uuughhh_…

"So, how come you can't just use your power ring to fix it?"

I suppress another wince with a shudder, hugging myself tightly. Wallace fetched my personal lantern as soon as I got back to the surface. I feel almost.. ungrateful for not being able to fix myself immediately. "I don't… Really know. For sure." Mister Tawny rubs himself against the right side of my chest as I sit propped up against the Bio-Ship's interior hull. "I think… My New God nature is preventing the ring from altering my body."

"What.. actually.. happened?"

"The ship… " _Ughhehk_. "When we got to the bridge, the ship drained the ring dry. One of the Guardian's robots reactivated and attacked us, we smashed it to bits." Managed to keep some parts in one piece. I'll be taking a close look when I feel less crap. "M'gann told me to go back to the surface-" Stupid Guardians and their boom tube blocking… "-and I.. didn't realise I could still be affected by decompression sickness."

There's a blur and Wallace is holding a medical textbook, pages blurring. "Decompression sickness. You've got the pain covered. Any rashes?"

I give him a look. "I'm _grey_."

"Ookay, skip that. Loss of balance?"

"Yes, but I just had Father Box direct me."

"Hearing loss?" I shake my head. "Incontinence?"

"The ring would clear it up if I was." He raises his eyebrows. "I don't think so. I'm not having a feel to find out for sure."

"The 'Sensation of tiny insects crawling over the skin'?"

"I feel like a.. like a balloon filled with mustard gas. My skin…" I pull my right arm away from my chest and hold out my forearm. "You can't see under the armour but my arm has swollen-."

"Yeah, I…" The corners of his lips dip down for a second. "I can…" He points at me. "Ah. See.. your face."

Oh. I raise my right hand and delicately press _owowowowow!_. Ahh, gahh**hh**! Not doing that again! "Father Box, how long until I return to normalcy?"

_"Ploong."_

Oh fuck my life.

"So… Apart from that, how'd the mission go?"

I glower at him. _"Peachy."_

"Um. I.. can.. just…"

I shake my had. "No, no, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped." For a half second I reach up to rub my forehead, but I remember myself and pull the hand away before making contact. I take a deep breath instead. "Stealth insertion went fine. We all made it to the ship without any problem and without any sign that anyone had picked up on us being here." Of course, if the Russians are playing around with anything _really_ exotic… "M'gann couldn't phase through the hull but I didn't have any trouble opening up a boom tube _in_."

"So why didn't you just-?"

"When we got to the bridge the ship decided I was a viable power source. It drained the ring and used the power to bring its own systems back on line." I grimace. "Including its Guardian interdiction field."

"No boom tubes?"

"No boom tubes. Stupid.. robot got a few good hits on me." Nothing that caused any lasting harm, mind you. Not like the stupid gasses. "That and the drain on the ring… M'gann sent me back up to the Bio-Ship to get out of range of the interdiction field."

"And that's when you..?"

"Yes." I clamp my eyes tightly closed for a moment. Something else, ask about something else. "I seem to remember that your uncle doesn't retain things he reads at super speed?"

"Oh, yeah, its the same with me. I won't remember a thing about decompression sickness in a couple of minutes." He considers the point. "Hey, do you think being a speed-god means I _can_ learn how to remember stuff like that? Because that would be _sweet_."

"I don't know. It mayagh_hah__**h**_…" Another wave of pain and I curl a little in on myself.

Wallace looks concerned. "Dude. Do you need-?"

"No, no. I don't think anyone can really help. I.. appreciate the thought, but… To answer your question, I don't know. This situation hasn't occurred before. If you can't do it **now**, you _**may**_ develop the ability as your metaphysique absorbs more power. You may not. I just don't know."

"Jay told me Max Mercury was probably the guy I-" The door to the Bio-Ship oozes open off to our left. "-should talk to-" M'gann floats in, telekinetically pulling water from her hair and costume and tossing the droplets back into the Arctic Ocean. "-if I… He trails off and turns around. "Hey, Miss M."

Her eyes are fixed on me. "Kid Flash, could you please let me talk to Grayven alone?"

"Um." He looks at me and then back at her. "Sure? I guess I'll.. see you back at the cave." A slight shift in the texture of the air and he's gone, the Bio-Ship door closing behind him.

M'gann keeps floating, hovering in the air directly in front of me. "You knew, didn't you?"

"You're going to have to be a little more-." She makes a twisting gesture with her right hand, telekinetically-. "_Owowowowow_, okay, _yes_." She eases off. "I didn't know for certain, but I had a pretty good idea. There was a Burning Martian down there?"

"Yes."

_Ugh_. I try to straighten up a little. "Everyone alright?"

"I **felt** its _mind_! All it wanted to do was… Was _**hurt things**_! The very first thing it did when it got out of the stasis pod was make us feel like we were on _**fire**_!"

"Your.. ancient forebears were supposedly a fairly unpleasant bunch, though I should point out that one individual isn't a-."

Her eyes blaze with colour. "The Guardians put these blocks in our minds to stop us turning into those _things_ and they were **right** to. Without them…" She drops to the floor, some of the passion leaving her as her eyes dim and she raises her palms to partially cover her face. "We could… _I_ could…"

_Oh this is going to hurt __**nyuakk**_! I push myself to my feet and lay my right hand on her shoulder. "**No**. No you couldn't. M'gann, you are not some brute with the primordial thoughts of your savage ancestors roaring their base impulses into your soul. You grew up on modern Mars in a technologically and telepathically sophisticated society. Have you _ever_ felt that sort of murderlust yourself?"

She hesitates for a moment, then shakes her head. "No. But.. I _could_. I felt what it felt, saw how it…"

"And I realise that was a shock-."

"You should put it back. I-I couldn't stand-."

"M'gann, look at me." She turns her head upwards. "You. Are not. That thing. You will not **become** that thing. Okay? You have family and-" **-friends-** Her eyes widen slightly as I voluntarily use telepathy. **-who love you. That sort of violence doesn't just.. miraculously appear in a person's psyche. You may _theoretically_ have the capacity now but that isn't in _you_. M'gann M'orzz is a delightful young woman who balances a schedule of schoolwork, boyfriend and occasional world-saver. Do you think for a moment that _it_ would do that? That it would be up here, scared of _**its**_ capacity for viciousness?**

**No. No.. it wouldn't.**

**The Guardians granted your species the ability to become something worthwhile. I don't know why they.. took their eyes off the ball _later_, but it isn't something that should cause you to descend into histrionics.** She nods, pulling away slightly. "Has there been a decision on what we're doing with the ship now?"

"No. Uncle J'onn wants to talk it over with the rest of the Justice League first." I nod, lowering myself back down so I can go back to whimpering in peace. "I'll let you know what they decide. And… Thank you."


	50. Page 31

**30th January  
09:47 GMT**

"How long will it take to get there?"

M'gann and I hang in space near the edge of the Sol system, watching as orange light surges around the exterior of the Guardian ship. Good thing the local Greenies are all out of the system at the moment. Fingers of orange light flicker around the hull as its faster than light systems build up, then it appears to accelerate towards a glowing orange point immediately in front of it until the whole thing vanishes.

"Demiplane transition complete."

That would probably look really interesting if I was doing the full awareness expansion thing. From what the ring and I were able to extract from the databases remaining on the ship it sounds like using ring faster than light travel causes the one doing it to be temporarily transported to the elemental plane of avarice… Or something like that. A lot of the words the data stores used didn't have good translations.

**It should be there by Thursday.** Along with a polite message of greeting from me and a suspended Burning Martian.

**I thought it would be quicker.**

**Maltus is on the other side of the galactic core. Plus, you can't just drop out of FTL wherever you want.**

**Because it's not polite?**

**Because an inevitable part of learning a technique for working around the laws of physics well enough that you can _go_faster than light is learning how to disrupt that technique. Otherwise, wars between interstellar civilisations would just involve them throwing faster than light projectiles at each other's homeworlds.** I generate a construct to show what I mean. **Lantern Stewart used something like _this_ when I fought him at New Year. Stops ring-based FTL. Well, the sort Lanterns usually use, in theory we could just create a construct to replicate one of the others…**

**So the Controllers would have those on their planet.**

I let the construct fall apart. **That, and a lot more besides. Plus, yes, it would be impolite. There's a sort of 'implied threat' to even _trying_.**

**How do ships usually get into a system if they can't used faster than light travel? They can't go in at sub-light, that would take…" She trails off. "I know it takes light five hours to get from the sun to the edge of our system, but you said starships can't go that fast.**

**Yes, it would take a long time. Some systems just don't let anyone inside their systems. They either go isolationist or build huge space stations further out. Other places use tugs or force visitors to rely on navigational data they provide or escort ships in at gunpoint. Or just set their interdiction devices to automatically reactivate if the ship goes above a certain speed.**

**What will they do with…** She shudders slightly.

**The Burner?** She nods. **I don't know. They might hand him over to the… Was that a 'him'?**

**I couldn't tell.**

**'Him'.. over to the Guardians. Or just leave him in suspended animation. Or turn him into a modern Martian.** That was the one thing I wasn't sure about in this whole situation. **Would other Martians really have been able to feel him?**

She nods. **If he were out of stasis? Yes. His thoughts were… I don't know if I can explain it. Mart-.** She looks 'down', not that there's anything particularly close to us out here. **_Modern_ Martians are more sensitive to each other's thoughts than we are to those of other species. We instinctively.. reach out to each other.** She sighs. **Just like the Guardians wanted.**

**Would you rather be like..?**

**No! You.. didn't feel its mind.** Her gaze drifts as she searches for a way to explain it. **It killed them. Fists, Guardians, … It even killed the last of the other Burning-. **Martians** when power got low and it wanted to make sure its stasis chamber stayed working for as long as possible. It didn't feel regret, it didn't really think about it at all. It just instinctively _knew_ that was the right thing to do.**

**How are you doing?**

**I've been better.** I float over to her and wrap my right arm around her waist. She doesn't look at me. **And you know what's worse? I recognised the technique it was using. The thing it was doing with its skin. It's just about the most advanced feat of self control Martians practice. I've only ever seen Reds do it, and only over a tiny part of their bodies. It's supposed to be the ultimate expression of self-mastery; overcoming our species' fear of fire to become _one_ with fire. And now I know it just means they were _regressing_!**

**I doubt it means _that_. It would take a lot to overcome the Guardian's blocks-.**

**How did you know?**

I frown for a moment. **Know what?**

She pulls away slightly so she can look me in the face. **What the Guardians did. I didn't remember until later, but, when Red Tornado and Red Inferno attacked the mountain… When the fire cage was making me panic, you told-** _Whoops_ **-me what they did. I didn't really think about it. I just thought you were telling me a story so I'd have something to concentrate on while I calmed down. But then we actually saw the ship and.. it was **real**. They really did it. How did you know?**

Ring, accelerated mental processes.

Compliance.

The small motions of her body and the slight wobbling of the environmental shield around her slow down until they're barely noticeable. Right. I'd forgotten about that. How could I credibly have got that knowledge? Lantern Stewart's ring?

This ring contained no such-

Shut up. No, the other Greenies could -**will**, when they hear what happened- ask _their_ rings about it. In a classified partitioned off section? No, the Guardians would know whether that was true or not and I don't think Jordan or Stewart would take my word over theirs. A data transmission from the ship itself? Possible, and given the state of its systems rather tricky to refute. Attributing it to data that was on the ring when I found it is sort of asking for someone to request a complete list of files. Claim ignorance, suggest them as possibles? Could work. M'gann doesn't seem angry, she's just noticed an inconsistency. Thinking about it, I'm a bit surprised Jordan hasn't asked me how I knew about Lantern Qarrigat.

Ring, normalcy.

Compliance.

**I'm not really sure.** I shrug. **I've had the ring poke into a lot of different databases, and when I found out this Earth had aliens on it I asked it to 'find out everything'. It might have picked up the data from the ship.. or maybe from a transmission the ship sent out?**

**Why didn't you say something when we found the ship? It could really have helped.**

**Because I had no way to confirm that the data I had was genuine. I had no idea that there would be Fists there, I… I didn't know how their test subjects were different from modern Martian…**

She frowns. **You said-.**

**What the data told me. I couldn't check it until I assimilated that last cylinder. I didn't know exactly what it could do so anything I'd have said would have risked misinforming you. As it was, matter disrupting aura aside it fought pretty much like a modern Martian.** She nods. **How did you know how to stop _that_?**

**Mister J'aarkn's pendant, plus what I got from its mind. I read its mind to match the disruptions it was using. Luckily it wasn't very creative. It kept using the same modulation so I could focus on attacking it rather than constantly readjusting.**

I nod and look around. **Do you want to stay up here for a bit?**

**No, we should get back.** She turns in the approximate direction of Earth. **I want to make sure everything's 'in order' before Doctor Fate arrives.** She gives me a small smile. **Can you imagine all the things a sorcerer as old and powerful as him could teach us?**

Ah. _That_. **I think I probably can. I'll drop you off.**

**Why? Do you have plans?**

**Yes. I plan on getting a hotel room.**

**Doppelgänger.**

**5th February  
06:01 GMT -4**

I open my eyes and look at the off-white hotel pillow beneath my head. _This is not my beautiful house_…

I pull the duvet tighter around me. "Ring, anything from the Controllers?"

"No messages received."

Sure, the ship couldn't just FTL into Maltus orbit but they don't maintain an interdiction field _that_ far from their system. I _know_ that the ship is at least in Maltus' star system by now.

"Status of automated defences?"

"Two intruders have been entangled. No further activations."

Unfortunate thing about a ring moderated body; no excuses. I only feel tired if I want to feel tired. No one would think it odd for someone to sleep in a little on a Saturday but all that'll happen to me is that I'll eventually get bored. And I've got plans with Zatanna today and.. I need to find out if she's made any plans for her birthday. Or if there's anything she'd like to do. I half turn in bed and push myself up into a sitting position. Ring, curtains.

Compliance.

Sunlight. I instinctively blink as it hits me, then roll my eyes at my own behaviour as the ring easily compensates. Normally on a Saturday I'd use the fact that I get up earlier than everyone else to prepare the kitchen. Get the waffle iron heated up and some fresh batter mixed. A little later on if Batman didn't have a mission for us we'd have training, lectures first and then some sort of physical session.

I still can't believe they actually…

No, if they're serious about making him 'part of the team' of course it makes sense that Nabu would be taking a week as our overseer eventually. And I'm certainly not begrudging Red Tornado his time off being 'John Smith'. I'm sure a few lectures on arcane theory and practise will do my colleagues the world of good. For myself, I will not spend a moment longer in Nabu's presence than mission priorities require.

I don't so much fly out of bed as drag myself upwards. Don't need to wash, don't really need to -a wave of orange passes over me- dress. Breakfast? Getting room service had a certain novelty value to it the first night but it's not as if the food is any better when delivered like that. Ring, grant maids… Wait, what's a male maid called? And.. maidians? Maid men? Janitorial staff access-

Closest term is 'valet'.

Oh. Thank you. Maids or valets access.

Compliance.

I drift down and land next to the bed. Zatanna's not going to be up for another hour at least. John… Four hours ahead. He _should_ be awake. Probably… I trudge over to the glass door leading to the balcony and push it open.

_"Mmmmph!"_

"Well, honestly, what were you expecting?" I don't recognise the man. Sweatshirt and jeans, male pattern baldness shaved near bald and a camera that fell from his hand as the entangler activated. "Do you know how often people try and kill me?"

"Murm_uuuh_?"

I float the camera up and have the ring check its memory. No, he didn't get anything. "Did you climb up? That would actually be slightly impressive." His just visible eyes flick sideways. "Snuck into the room next door and climbed across the adjoining balcony?" A nod. "Leave anything there?" A slight hesitation and then a shake. "Right ho." I connect a filament to him, pick him up and float him over the edge of the balcony.

_"M__**mmmn**__!""_

I lower him at speed. Am I going to need to change hotels or will he spread the word that this doesn't work? I may be a C-list superhero but I'm **not** a C-list celebrity. I have no interest in appearing in some rag of a tabloid. Just before he reaches the ground I reduce speed, then open the entanglement trap and bring it back up. I hear a dull thump from below as I reset the trap. It's sort of nice that the Green Lantern Corps has put so much effort into low lethality weapons. The camera I just transition down next to him. Now, where's the other one?

I walk back into the bedroom and close the door behind me. Pretty cold here in Metropolis, not that I feel it. Don't want it to be too cold for the staff. Crossing the room I go through the interior door into the living area.

_"Resufgnin!"_

No, didn't make it this far. I switch the television on to GBS. I did _try_ BBC News 24 for a while but it's just so repetitive. GBS is far more likely to carry alerts of things I need to know about right this second. I only glance at the screen as I cross the room towards the cloakroom. Don't recognise the reporter and there doesn't appear to be any sort of ongoing attack. Gotham? Oh, if Batman needs me he has my number. I pull open the door and look down at the bound woman. "Good work on picking the lock…" Wait, where's the camera?

_"Fzew!"_

No camera found.

Oh dear. Weapons?

The ring shows my mind's eye a picture of a nail file.

Yeah, that doesn't count. "I'm going to untie you now, and I'd appreciate an explanation." I touch the entangler with a filament and open it up, the silver ribbons retracting back into the device. The woman inside staring up at me defiantly is.. maybe late teens? Early twenties? Dull grey jogging bottoms and a hoodie combined with a Superman t-shirt. Her hair is brown, medium length and frankly a bit of a mess.

"What the hell was that?!"

"An entangler. Very useful device." She pulls herself to her feet, sparing a second to glare at it instead of me. "So. I'm Orange L-."

"I _know_ who you **are**!" Actually, her voice does sound-. "You got me fired!"

I point at her with my right forefinger. "Dana Dearden."

"Got that right." Her right hand heads towards her pocket. What's she going to do, throw change at me? "And I'm going to-."

"I'm so sorry about that. It honestly didn't occur to me at the time that they might.. react in that way." I tilt my head back for a second, looking at the ceiling. "It wasn't until Diana -Wonder Woman- talked to me about it the next day… I mean, it was just a little oversight, right? A ticking off would have been more proportionate. I'd probably have realised myself if I'd been more on the ball." She frowns, apparently puzzled. "I phoned the studio a few days later to see if I could get them to change their minds…" I shrug apologetically. "They weren't really... The person I spoke to went on about journalistic ethics… Um, Malcolm.. someone?"

She blinks and appears to calm down a little. _"Bernstein."_

"Might have been. Anyway, I just.. wanted to laugh the whole thing off…"

"I can't believe he-! Gr_ah_!"

I gently press my left hand into her side to nudge her along as I head for the door out of the suite. She starts to be led along before she realises what's happening. "Can I… Buy you breakfast? I realise it doesn't really make up for losing your job…"

"Oh. Um." She looks a little bewildered. "Thank you?"

**5th February  
06:28 GMT -4**

"…interning while I get my college diploma, but you _really_ need to get in early in this industry. So, you know, thanks for doing this."

"It's fine." I take a bite of my toasted bacon sandwich. Usually there are a few stringy bits that stay connected when you try and bite cleanly through and then you get bits of bacon grease pinging all over your clothes. I on the other hand get a tiny flare of orange light and a tooth cutting edge which extends beyond my actual teeth. "And there's absolutely no doubt that you're going to be recording it."

She just sort of stares at me for a moment. "… No." She leans over to her bag to fish out a notepad and pen.

"I can just.. record the whole thing.. give you a copy at the end?"

"I wanna get into the habit. Practice my shorthand in the field." She flicks to a new page. "You really not been interviewed about being **you** before?"

I shake my head. "No hometown, so I'm not really on anyone's 'patch'."

"_No_ hometown?"

"I'm from a parallel universe. I grew up in a village called 'Westham' which doesn't exist-."

"Wait wait wait. _**Parallel universe**_?"

"Yes?" We stare at each other this time. "You.. are aware of the concept?"

"Yeah, but… Okay, so what's different? Did.. the Nazi's win World War Two? Or.. did Britain win the War of Independence?"

Best received pronunciation on. "That nasty little colonial rebellion?" Her mouth opens slightly. "No, we lost. Really, I'm not sure that there's any **one** historical event I can point to as being the source of the divergence. No one.. where I'm from has superpowers, and certain _really_ cutting edge technologies don't exist."

"Like?"

"Zeta tubes. Artificial intelligence. I mean, we have search algorithms and things like that but we don't have proper Human equivalent synthetics."

"Neither do we. I mean, apart from Red Tornado."

"Yeah, that, that exactly." I wave my sandwich at her. "Ridiculously advanced one-offs that don't.. spread. Doesn't happen where I'm from."

"No Superman either?"

"No aliens at all, as far as we know. Could be they don't exist, could be there just aren't any near us. Or it could be that our physical laws just flat out don't allow faster than light travel, an idea I find somewhat depressing."

"The laws of physics are different." I nod. "So how come you're… Human, and not some sort of bizarre monster."

"Oh no, I am a monster."

"You don't _look_ like a monster."

"That's because you're not a magic user. You see, everyone from.. this Earth, maybe from anywhere in this universe… They pick up a sort of.. shell of magic energy based on what they are and how they interact with their environment. You call it a 'soul'."

"You.. think you don't have a soul."

"I know I _didn't_. Now, I've had some work done, it's a bit up in the air." I lean forwards slightly. "A soul isn't just an abstract concept, it's the part of you that interacts with the arcane, the little bit of you that survives the death of your organic body. My home parallel doesn't support them. The Atlanteans freaked the heck out when I told them."

She stares at me again, then shakes her head slightly and focuses on her pad. "Okay then. If you come from a parallel universe, how did you get here? I mean it sounds like you don't have the technology to build interdimensional-"

I raise my right forefinger in protest. "Interplanar. Interdimensional is something different."

"Oh."

"Lot of people make that mistake."

"Okay, well, it sounded like you wouldn't be able to build something like that-" I nod. "-so how did you get here?"

"I got _here_ via a Bleed Portal. The Bleed's.. what you get between different universes, different.. stable sets of physical laws."

"Let's just skip that."

"Okay. Um. Not really sure how I left my own parallel. I woke up in high orbit around-" I look around the dining area. "-_this_Earth."

"And how did you get a power ring?"

I take a moment to look at it. "Don't really know. I must have got it either just before I got here or _really quickly_ after because otherwise I'd have suffocated." I shake my head. "I've been trying to get hold of some people who might know but they're not answering me."

"The Green Lanterns? Didn't you hand out Christmas Cake with them?"

"No. I mean, I _did_, but they're not who I'm talking about. The Green Lantern Corps selects people who are strong willed and basically moral. It _doesn't_ select for intelligence." No offence, Guy. "None of the local ones are physicists, so they've got no more idea about how I got here than I do."

"Okay, um… What made you decide to become a superhero?"

"I had to make a deal to get a personal lantern to charge the ring." I shrug. "Becoming a superhero was part of the deal I made."

"So you.. don't.. actually care about..?"

"Doing the police's job for them?" Another shrug. "I used to be an administrative assistant. No.. dark origin story, no burning desire to serve the public good or.. reaffirm my allegiance to something or somewhere by punching people in the face. Want to know why I'm refreezing the Arctic?" She nods, pen poised. "You've had.. freeze rays for years. You've got the same basic economic system.. and the associated environmental damage that my Earth has. Why was no one putting two and two together… No, it isn't even two and two. Why was no one putting one and one together? Stupidly misapplied technology winds me up."

"Freeze rays don't work where you're from either?"

"No. It's not even global warming, really. It wouldn't kill Humanity if all the ice on the planet melted, or if.. this species or that went extinct. At the same time, you don't _need_ thermodynamic law breaking freeze rays to fix the problem. Rich people could just live a little differently… Or just paint their roofs white. That would work. "

"What?"

"The ice at the planets pole is a huge area of white. White looks white because it reflects visible wavelengths of light. Other colours absorb it, absorb energy and get hot. On a hot day, touch the head of someone who's blonde and the head of someone with black hair. The black hair will be hotter. Anyway, I'll need to freeze the planet down to Toronto and up to Buenos Aires if everyone wants to use the same amount of electricity and petrol as Americans do, but I _could_ balance the heat books that way." Her pen isn't moving and her face has gone a little pale. W-? "I'm not **going to**!"

**5th February  
06:47 GMT -4**

"…tend to think of superheroing as being a right wing thing."

"Doesn't the Justice League try and stay out of politics?"

"The League as a whole doesn't want to pick a side in the eternal battle of Republicans versus Democrats. Most members have -at some point- expressed an opinion on particular issues. What I mean is, the Right -the libertarian Right- want small government, say that society works best with as little government intervention as possible. Well, when that idea _works_, what do you think it looks like? One plutocrat holding onto the means of production and generously letting the proles below have the occasional crumb which slips from his plate?"

"Prole?"

"Proletariat. Working class people. No. It looks like the Justice League. The League don't get paid. Most of them don't even draw expenses."

"Don't they get money from the UN?"

"All goes on maintaining their infrastructure." Don't mention the Watchtower. "The zeta tube network alone eats up something like sixty percent of the UN's contribution. The Hall pretty much pays for itself, but then you've got-"

"Zeta tubes?"

"That's not a secret. If you watch the library in the Hall of Justice you can see them using-"

She nods. "Oh, right, the teleporter. Why does that cost so much?"

"It isn't exactly a teleporter. It's strictly point to point only. If the League want to go somewhere they need a terminal there, and it's the very thing that lets them act as a global organisation."

"But.. a lot of them can fly."

"Going flat out, Wonder Woman can fly at about eighty miles an hour. Assuming that she was in New York it would take her more than an hour to fly to Washington under her own power."

"Wonder Woman's got a plane."

"Flat out, that plane can go a little above the speed of sound. About eight hundred miles an hour. New York to Atlanta in an hour or so, completely useless if someone or something is attacking Atlanta **now**. They _need_ that network." I pause."Though, replacing it with something better and cheaper is one of the things I'm working on."

"Okay, how about Superman?"

"Superman's top speed is higher than Wonder Woman's but not by an order of magnitude. I think it's only The Flash, the Lanterns and maybe Nabu-"

"Who?"

"Nabu. Fate. His name's not a secret, he just doesn't talk to people often enough for people to know it. They don't really need it, but the Flash has a life outside being the Flash and the Lanterns have to split their time across an entire space sector. And those are **big**. No, it's the zeta tubes that make the thing possible."

"And you want to replace it."

"With Dolmen Gates." I take two small ones out of subspace and create construct stands for them on the table. "Stick your finger in one!"

"'kay?" She gingerly reaches around with her left hand and hesitantly pokes her middle finger through the ring. There's a very slight intake of breath as it comes out of the other one. She stares at it for a moment and then puts down her pen and pokes her left middle finger with her right forefinger. "That's.. amazing…"

"I know, right? Me and this Atlantean guy came up with them-."

"You were there with that Ambassador and Senator Knight! He did that whole speech about building a trading relationship!"

"And that right there is why. Right now the Justice League struggle to get to rural areas… Even urban areas in some countries. Once we can make enough of those, no more problem. Heck, no more expensive and highly polluting passenger aircraft."

She pokes her left finger through a few more times and then pokes her right forefinger back the other way. "Can I keep this?"

"Nnnnooo, sorry. It's the only demo model I have. They're not easy to make, it's just the running costs that are negligible. You know, aside from the Roanoke Island thing, I think.. my biggest impact on Earth has been getting those created. And the Roanoke Island thing wasn't just me on my own. If I hadn't been there the others could probably have handled it. "

"Others?"

What we did at Roanoke isn't a secret, but the existence of the team as a combat unit _is_. "Other young superheroes. Given the circumstances at the time, getting together seemed like a good idea." What was I.. talking about..? Right, right."Anyway, getting back to what I was saying-."

Dana withdraws her hands and picks up her pen once more. "About the Justice League being a right wing organisation?"

"Right. Everyone there chose to do what they do. Except maybe Red Tornado, but he could still quit if he wanted to. They didn't think about.. how they could best serve the common good-."

"Yes they did. Did you miss Superman's speech about.. some problems-."

Bullshit. "Yeah, he might _think_ that, but…" I shake my head. "Maybe that was why the League stayed together, but most members of the League started fighting bad people for far more personal reasons."

"Like..?"

Um. "The Flash was a big fan of.. the.. previous Flash. " And I can't talk about why most of them got into it without giving major hints as to their secret identities. "You're.. really going to have to ask them, I don't think they'd want me-"

"How well do you know them?"

"Pretty darn well."

"Are _you_ going to be joining the League?"

"Not any time soon. The point I was trying to make is, they didn't ask for government authorisation-."

"They _got_ government authorisation."

"After they'd been operating for years. And if it got taken away tomorrow, do you really think they'd stop? No, the League is a result of private init-."

"Incoming communication."

"What was that?"

"The ring." I lift my left hand to my ear and generate a phone construct. "Excuse me a moment. Orange Lantern two eight one four speaking?"

"Do you really say that every time?"

"Good morning Zatanna. Yes, I do. It's how my mum trained me to answer the phone. You're up early."

Dana looks interested. "That's Zatanna Zatara?" I nod.

"Yeah, I… I think I'd like to get started early… I know it's late morning in England already, so if you didn't have any other plans…"

"No… Would you like me to pick you up or will you make your own way there?"

"Can you pick me up?"

"No problem, I'll be there in about… Five minutes?"

"See you in five." I remove the construct, ending the call.

"So you're in contact with a lot of superheroes?"

"Yes? Actually, they make up pretty much my entire social circle."

"Do you think you could get some of the others to do interviews with me? It would _really_ help."

"I'll certainly _ask_, but I can't promise anything. If you give me your phone number I'll be sure to pass it on."

**5th February  
06:53 GMT -4**

Dana hands me a torn off page of her notebook with her mobile phone number scribbled on it. "Do you actually think any of them will call me?"

I subspace it along with the Dolmen Gates. "Kid Flash and Kaldur..." Blank look. "**Aqualad** might. The others…" Kon almost certainly not. M'gann's a possible. Robin _nooo_. Raquel..? Does.. she.. **have** a secret identity? I assumed not given that she doesn't obscure her face but I never actually asked… "I expect not but there's no harm in asking."

"Okay, well um. Thanks. For doing this. I really wasn't expecting…"

"Oh, it's fine. Don't mention it."

She takes a breath, then hesitates for a moment. "Are you..? Could we..? Meet up again? Maybe, later in the week? Go over a few more things?"

"Yes, if you like. I'm probably going to be busy tomorrow.. but I can phone you on Monday when I have a better idea what I'm doing for the rest of the week. Oh, do you want my room key?"

She goes completely still for a moment and there's a slight intensifying of red light within her. "**What**?"

"Well, I can't imagine you got much sleep tied up on the floor. My room's going to be empty all day, probably going to be quieter than your halls of residence.. or wherever you're living at present. If you want to use it-."

"Oh. Um, no, I.. think I just want to make a start on writing this-" She taps her notebook against the table. "-up."

I nod and fabricate a datastick with a recording of the conversation. "As promised." I give her a shallow bow. "Now, if you'll excuse me." Ring, zeta tube.

Lights flicker and then… "Welcome, Orange Lantern two eight one four."

"He-llo Shadowcrest." I know the zeta tube isn't actually tied into the house's magics but it does seem the polite thing to do. I stride towards the door, pull it open and stick my head out. "Zatanna?! Are you decent?!"

"I'm in the kitchen!"

"That wasn't a 'yes'!"

"**Yes**!"

I transition to just outside the kitchen and then walk inside. "Good morning."

She turns to smile at me as she puts a plate into the sink. "You already said that."

"But now I'm saying it in person. Have you read the files on Star Sapphire?"

She nods. "Carol Ferris was given the Star Sapphire by the Zamarons shortly after she broke up with Green Lantern, turning the love she still felt for him into a crazy obsession." She shakes her head. "Why would they do that?"

"Not sure. Optimistically, they didn't know that the two of them had separated and intended for them to work together. Pessimistically, they were trying to prove that the violet light is stronger than the green by having her beat him into submission." I think the reason in the comics was that they wanted her to take over as their queen, but that almost certainly isn't the case here. The Guardians would surely have found out if anything had happened to Queen Aga'po, right?

"How are things in the cave?"

"I don't know. I'm spending the week in a hotel."

"Oh." She blinks, then a small frown appears. "Did I hear a voice when you answered the phone?"

"Probably. I was having breakfast a with woman named Dana Dearden."

"O-oh."

"I don't know if I told you-" She shakes her head. "-about it, she was the one who phoned me after the Roanoke interview. Turns out they _did_ fire her."

"_O_h. Then, how did..?"

"She somehow found out that I was staying in Metropolis and broke into my room." I give an amused exhalation. "She ended up spending the night-" Zatanna's eyes widen. "-tied up on the floor-" She drops her mug into the sink with a crack. "-after she triggered one of my entangler traps. I only found her this morning."

Her mouth hangs open slightly. A moment passes and she closes it again. "You.. booby trapped your room."

"My passive defences aren't good enough to stop a determined attack if I'm asleep. Obviously the outer defences weren't particularly dangerous. When I found her I just.. felt bad about her losing her internship so invited her to join me for breakfast. Oh, that reminds me; she wants to do interviews with everyone on the team. I said that I wasn't sure if anyone would be up for it but I've got her number if you **are**."

"You got her number."

"Yes." I extract the page from subspace and hold it out as evidence.

"Did she.. by any chance.. say anything about meeting up later?"

"To continue the interview, yes. Given everything-" She bends slightly at the waist and raises her right hand to her forehead. What? "-that's happened in the last seven months we couldn't cover more than a fraction of it in under an hour." She doesn't move. "What?"

"Paul."

"Yes?"

"She was asking you out."

I frown. "Are you sure, because that wasn't what she-."

"**Yes**." She moves her hand slightly to the side and stares at me. "Do you really not notice?"

"Um."

"I'd understand if you just didn't find _me_ attractive, but Artemis said you didn't pick up on it when she hit on you either." Eh? "And you actually kissed Danette Reilly.. but then you didn't do anything else… You know… If you're just not into girls, you can tell me, right?"

Ah. "No, I…" Have I really..?

"In a way, it's… Kind of a relief."

"I'm not.. gay. I think… Okay, this is going to sound a bit odd. You know how I said orange light affects the mental state of its users?"

"It makes you take what you want." She frowns again. "But that would-."

"**Yes**. So I had the ring turn down my testosterone levels." I shrug. "Just in case. I hadn't really thought about it, but that could be why I've been missing.. you know… People.. being.. interested."

"Wouldn't doing that cause…" She looks me over. "Um."

"The rings maintain my body, and production goes back up to normal when I run out of power or take them off. I suppose.. now.. there's not really much risk if I turn it back up a little. It's just sort of _nice_ not worrying about it."

She thinks for a moment and then nods slowly. "I think you probably should. If you're missing social cues then it's obviously having a serious effect on you."

"Alright, if you say so. Ring, normalise."

"Compliance."

I smile at her. "Now lets go and talk to John about his magic love crystal."

**5th February  
11:18 GMT**

"Rettub ot dael."

John gives me a look of amused incredulity. "You.. were.. _what_?"

"Dael ot rettub."

"It seemed like a perfectly sensible thing to do at the time. And after I did it, I didn't see a reason to turn it off."

"Rettub ot dael."

_"Hehahahe!_ Oh, blimey mate. That one's gunna-."

"Keep smiling and I'll give you a six pack."

"Dael ot rettub."

He loses his smile. "Well. Angie's gone back home to Liverpool. Since I'm single again, maybe I could use the edge."

"Rettub ot dael."

I can't say I'm surprised. Still… "But this one actually _wasn't_ your fault. Her brother would have died-."

"Looks like a pattern to most people." He turns to Zatanna. "Feelin' tired yet?"

"Dael.. ot.. rettub." The dull grey ingot emits a puff of the smoke that usually accompanies Zatanna's transmutation efforts, revealing that it now sports a sort of butter marbling effect. She prods it with her right forefinger. "Yeah…" She takes a heavy breath. "I think so."

"You alright?"

She shakes her head. "I don't usually tire myself out on purpose. I might have a headache later but at the moment it just feels a bit tingly."

"Hmm." Clarice looks her over carefully from her seat at the side of the room. "Might need to brew you a little pick me up if this turns out to be impossible. Which it probably will."

"Why do you say _that_?"

"Poppet, you can't just stick any old thing in to a talent like yours and expect it to work just as well. This crystal thing-" She taps the nail of her right forefinger on the heavily warded box containing the Star Sapphire. "-was made by aliens using techniques the people who dreamt up this ritual never even dreamed of."

"I.. was wondering…" I look over the design on the floor in the centre of the room again. "Isn't the confinement circle meant to be whole and unbroken? Isn't that.. sort of.. the point?"

John shakes his head. "No point bottling it all up. We need to feed a little into Zatanna, so we make a hole."

Clarice shakes her head. "Just after Beefy Jim turned his balls back on."

Zatanna goes red, trying not to look at anyone. "Clarice, I exist in harmony with my desires. True, I.. turned down the underlying basis for some of them-"

"_**H**__mphf_."

"-but that doesn't mean that I'm going to turn into a lust-crazed beast. Ring-based biomancy isn't like the arcane sort; I'm not limited to pre-existing natural forms."

Then she stares at me and I can see every one of her two hundred odd years. "You told us that the Guardians rejected their emotions and that they went a bit odd as a result. You said that the other colours have worse mental affects than green does. _You_ told _me_ that you meditated on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs daily. Sex is one of the most basic Human drives, it's at the base of the Hierarchy and **you tried to turn it off**. That was **not** clever."

"My soul is made of orange light, Clarice. I don't think you can assume I work-."

She turns the stare down a notch. "You should try to keep working like a normal Human. You'll miss it when it's gone."

"I.. could probably… Um, tune you up a little? Your flesh is still essentially-."

A little humour creeps back into her expression. "You keep your grubby little ring to yourself." She pauses. "No, on second thought, take them off and put them somewhere safe." She indicates the second box. "Can't have them interfering."

John indicates where he wants Zatanna to sit, in a circular shape made of pentagons with a broken circle around it. "I'm fairly suffused with orange light anyway. And I've had the rings near it before, I was wearing them when we recovered it from the moon."

She shakes her head. "The fewer active components the better, far as I'm concerned." She gets up off her chair in the same way I remember my Granny doing, shuffling to the edge so that the motion is as 'up' and as little 'forwards' as possible.

John frowns at her. "Where's Albert off to, then? Got used to you two being joined at the hip."

"Visiting a mutual friend." I open the second box and slide the rings off my fingers before closing it. I feel a little uncomfortable like this, but they're close by if I _really_ need them and the arcane practice rooms of the Tate Club are heavily protected.

"Oh yeah? Anyone I know?"

"Julian." John nods slowly as I offer Clarice my hand. She looks at it and exhales slightly. "I think I can make it across the room, thank you."

"What's he been up to?"

"Not a lot. He's in the Tower." John's frown deepens for a moment, then his face relaxes. "Messing about with things he didn't understand. That's why I said we had to do this in _here_." She carefully picks her way across the floor diagram before slowly crouching down and putting the box in the appropriate place and opening the lid. It really is quite pretty. The glow has the same style as the ring and my lantern but the translucence of the crystal structure causes it to glimmer and twinkle. "We won't take it out, just in case I have to shut it down."

Zatanna looks at her with some concern. "Is that safe for you?"

Clarice gives her a smile as she stands up and steps away. "Oh, I think so, Poppet. Take a bit more than this to get my old heart racing." She nods at me. "Alright Mister Expert; how do we set it off?"

"It responds to love just like the rings do avarice. Zatanna, close your eyes." She nods and shuts them. "Think about.. your earliest memory of your father." I wait for a moment. "What are you doing?"

"We're at a park. We're standing on a bridge over a river and I'm looking down at the surface of the water as the sun reflects off it."

"How do you feel?"

"Safe. Like Dad's there, and any problems-" A very small amount of violet light drifts smoke-like out of the Star Sapphire and into the diagram. "-he can protect me from them."

"I don't think we've ever really talked about your early childhood."

"We moved around a lot. Dad, and Uncle Charlie and me were just about the only constants in each other's lives."

"I would have thought that work wouldn't be thin on the ground for a stage magician who could use actual magic."

"Dad's stage shows were never just about 'real' magic. He was a stage magician first, and he was trying to break into a really competitive industry. Have to go where the job is."

The violet light is.. _really_ slow. Something more intense? "Why don't you talk about your lessons together, when he started showing you how to use magic?"

**5th February  
11:34 GMT**

"Well?"

Faint -_very faint_ strands of violet mist drift around the fingers of Zatanna's right hand as she holds it out to examine it. "I don't.. feel any different..?"

Ring? Oh. Right. "No oddities on empathic vision."

The left side of John's face tightens slightly. "Still no use if she can't use it."

Clarice lightly thumps him on the arm. "It's her first time trying. I can still remember the first time _you_ fell over our threshold, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah. Alright Zee, try doin' something with it."

"Like a.. construct..?" She pulls her fingers slightly and the mist starts to disperse. Her eyes widen. "No, stop, wait!"

"Zatanna, calm down. Focus on love, then let the power flow through you. We're just trying to recharge you, not create constructs." A few of Carol Ferris' greatest hits flick past my mind's eye. Never actually killed anyone but there were some bloody near misses. Probably the only reason why the kill count wasn't far larger was the attention-seeking aspect which the crystal encouraged. Jordan had to **be there** when she did it or it wasn't worth doing.

"Okay…" She closes her eyes, puts her hands on her knees and takes a few deep breaths. The mist drifts back a little. Least the theory is sound.

John looks at the circle. "Maybe if we took a couple of the protective runes out?"

He gets a stern look from Clarice. "Don't even think about it."

"Rats Erihppas, evig em rewop." The mists swirl for a moment, then a small amount of it flows over her, moving over and then into her skin. Her eyes snap open and she breathes in sharply.

"You alright?"

She makes tiny jerky nods with her head. "Uh-huh. O**o**h." She shudders. "That felt…" Another couple of blinks. "I don't know what that felt like."

John carefully picks his way across the floor, leans over the circle around Zatanna -creating a noticeable waft as the violet light tries to avoid him- and puts the leaden butter down in front of her before backing off. "Try it now."

She nods and holds her hands out around it. "Dael ot rettub!" Hm. If anything happened I didn't see it. Zatanna picks up the block for a closer look, looking a little despondent.

"Maybe you need to focus on love when you cast the spell as well?" I make a half shrug and look to John and Clarice for better ideas. Nothing appears to occur to them.

"Dael ot rettub!" There's a tiny puff of pink smoke from the buttery ingot, and when it clears… A tiny bit more is butter. Zatanna sags further, looking at me. "This isn't working. I don't think I can focus.. love like you do avarice."

"Did you know I let Robin have a go with the ring once?"

"No? When was that?"

"September. He couldn't use it either, not until I… I provoked him."

"Why did he.. want to?"

I glance at John and Clarice. "His uncle had crippling injuries. He doesn't anymore. I… I'd rather not.. say to you the sorts of things I said to him."

"If it's what we have to do… I can take it."

Or… "There's another option. I think.. it might be better. Shuffle forwards a bit." She puts her hands on the floor and shifts her position so that her knees are close to the far side of the circle. "Now, close yours eyes and picture us fighting Nabu. Forcing him back. Weakening him in the same way Klarion did so that his blue and gold costume is shimmering in and out of existence and you can see your father's suit. Your father's face." She nods as I walk around behind her. Having the psychiatrist sit behind the patient was a technique Freud used, wasn't it? "You've nearly got him back." The space inside the circle is becoming more violet. As expected, the Star Sapphire might be drawn to love but for some reason it also likes conflict. "Keep your eyes closed. Focus on how you feel. When I say 'now', I want you to-" How strong are the walls here? "-fire a blast of chaotic arcane energy directly forwards. Understand?"

"Yes."

I step inside the circle, drop down behind her, wrap my left arm around her stomach, my right around her chest and rest my head on her left shoulder pressed up against hers. "Now."

In the corner of my eye I see her eyes snap open. "Soahc Duolc!"

The mist surges into her body and dark purple smokes shoots out of a point just in front of her, passing through the protective design as if it wasn't even there. John and Clarice back off slightly as it hits the far wall, which shimmers for a moment before dissolving, tearing, bending like rubber and turning into flowers made of cheese which fall to the floor with a splat. This close I can feel it as Zatanna leans back slightly, pressing further into my chest.

"Pots! Pots!"

The flow of smoke slackens but doesn't stop. I move my face slightly so that I'm breathing directly into the nape of her neck."Zatanna. We don't need that any-"

"Pots!"

"-more."

The smoke _immediately_ fades from existence, showing us the hole it made in the floor of this room, the wall between this room and the next and the damage it caused into what looks like a meeting room of some sort. Fortunately it doesn't look like any of the consequences are _alive_, thought the solid oak table is bent and twisted into the shape of screaming faces.

Maybe it was like that before.

"Well done."

"Um…" She stiffens for a moment and then relaxes slightly into my embrace as John walks slowly across the room to peer through the hole.

"Blimey. Wouldn't want to be on the other end of _that_." He turns towards the two of us, looking Zatanna over before moving his gaze to me. His eyes narrow slightly before switching his attention back to Zatanna. "Feel any different?"

"Um." Her voice sounds tight. Strained. That won't do.

I move my hands to the tops of her arms, then gently run the tips of my fingers along them until I reach her hands. I gently stroke her palms as I tilt my head so that I can whisper into her ear. "Why don't you try turning the lead back into butter now?"

"Dael ot rettub-" A puff of violet smoke and the ingot changes fully into butter. "-otni citsalp-" Another puff and it's a violet plastic oblong. I can feel Zatanna's pulse quicken. "-otni latsyrc-" A beautiful piece of amethyst. "-otni emalf-" The fire burns within the confines of the original shape without needing air or spreading beyond it. "-otni-."

"That's enough fun for one day, I think." Clarice bends down, picks up the Star Sapphire and returns it to its box. The mists around Zatanna and I linger for a moment before fading away. "You-" She looks at me. "-can bloody well fix that before you leave."

I stand, half-lifting Zatanna along with me. Guess she's a bit shocked by the whole thing. Since I'm quite a bit taller than her I lean forwards slightly. "You alright?"

Zatanna nods slowly, staring at the hole in the wall as she leans back to put her weight on me. "Not yet. But I will be."

**5th February  
09:17 GMT -4**

"…could have kept going a _little_ longer."

"Welcome, Orange Lantern two eight one four. Welcome home Zatanna."

"Hey, Shadowcrest." Zatanna does the 'looking upwards' thing when she addresses the computer system. "It wasn't as if I was tired."

"Sorry. Anti-crazy protocol. John's idea, and frankly I agree with him."

"You wear your rings all the time."

"Giant cake." She looks away, nodding her head to the side slightly. "I was _very_ lucky. Trust me, you don't want to try getting along with the Predator." And **I** certainly don't want that.

She leads the way out of the zeta tube room and onto the landing. "Hey… I was.. thinking something…" I look attentive. "Neither of us… Want to be in the mountain with Nabu, right?"

My right hand reaches across my chest to check my Spell Eater is still there. "Of course not."

"Well… Why don't you… Stay here for the week? I mean, we've got lots of rooms and you won't have to worry about.. people sneaking in to take pictures of you or try interviewing you or anything."

"Um." That **would** be nice. I didn't tell Zatanna in advance what I intended to do about my living arrangements this week and we didn't really have a chance to talk about it before Nabu arrived. At least Batman's learned to give us _some_ notice."Thank you, I'd like that." Being apart from my friends after living… Okay, not cheek by jowl, it's a big mountain after all, but close to other people. What was it Terry Pratchett wrote? 'People aren't fully paid-up members of the human race, except biologically. They need to be bounced around by the Brownian motion of society to constantly remind one another what being human _is_.' Something like that. Of course, whether or not my housemates are genuinely Human to _start_ with…

"Great! My room's-" She points along the landing. "-down that way, Dad's room is over there, those two are free and… I think there are a few more bedrooms on the second floor."

"You _think_?"

She leads the way along the corridor. "Some parts of the house can actually be dangerous. When I was little Dad told me not to go above the first floor."

"And you obeyed?"

"No, but the rooms I went in were mostly empty. Or they had a load of furniture covered in white sheets. And.. **lots** of dust." She nods to herself. "So much dust."

Sounds a bit like the residence of Sybil Ramkin "Dangerous magical dust?"

"No, the regular kind." She pushes open a door. "I think Shadowcrest used to be a school."

"I had wondered about the bell tower."

"It doesn't have a bell in it. Not since…" She stops for a moment, then walks into the room. "Well? What do you think?"

I walk in after her. Large leaden windows on the far side, with a gap for a small table. On my right, a row of solid looking chests of drawers with a large oval mirror hanging over them. The floor is wooden, with a faded and predominantly green rug of Persian.. or possibly pseudo Persian design… Ring? No, there's the imperfection. Probably the genuine article. It covers most of the space. No radiator, but Shadowcrest maintains its own temperature and that wouldn't be a problem for me anyway. There's a wardrobe on my immediate left and the bed… An actual four poster! Goodness. "I think it will do perfectly. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

I look at the rug. "Does that.. fly..?"

She follows my gaze, frowning. "I don't.. think so… Ees cigam." Her eyes flash white for a second. Not violet, I note. Good thing too. Probably best if she doesn't get _too_ used to the Star Sapphire. "No, just a rug."

"Must be a good job this house cleans itself. I'd hate to think how many people it would take to keep it clean-." Wait, then why would the upper levels be dusty? "Um, but-?"

"A lot of the spells on the house were.. _sleeping_ when Dad and I moved in. The home making spells don't quite work more than a certain distance from-"

The ring blinks.

"-the front door."

"I can help you clean out the rest if you like. I'd set aside the whole day for making the Star Sapphire work, so I've got-."

"Should you.. get that?"

"Uuuuuuh, yeah. I'm just sort of trying to put off the evil hour on which I have to talk to Guy about the ship." I raise my left hand. "Orange Lantern two eight one four here. Go ahead."

Alan's head and upper torso appear above the ring. "Hey Paul."

"Alan. Ring!"

His eyes dip for a moment and he nods. "I didn't want to risk a phone with something… Listen, can you come over?"

I looks past him at Zatanna and raise my eyebrows. She nods. "Yes."

"Any chance you could get hold of Zatanna as well?"

"She's with me now. We'll be with you in a few minutes."

He nods. "I'll see you in a few."

"Oh, well done for getting the head the right size this time."

"Huh? _Oh_… Yeah, we old people can work out technology by ourselves sometimes. Catch you later." He waves and then the image disappears.

I exhale. "So Alan's been kidnapped."

"How can you tell?"

"Alan's ring _can't_ transmit properly. It's part of the damage it took which led to the Guardians losing track of it in the first place. Also, he doesn't say 'catch you later'. Ring, identify message source."

"Message source identical to that of ring registered as belonging to Alan Scott."

I hold out my hands and generate a construct model of Alan's house. I see him sitting in his living room with a newspaper."Right newspaper, but why would he be reading it if he's expecting us?" I rescan the rest of the house. "If he's got something to show us, where is it?"

"Maybe he didn't want it in the house?"

"Possibly…" I shake my head. "But I don't think so. After Truggs started working out how to counter ring scans I started working out how to spot it when someone was doing it. This is setting off my alerts."

"Gnir, ecreip eht sesiugsid." The ring image crackles for a moment and we see three… Two? Humanoid figures which swiftly vanish. "That still doesn't actually mean that he's being held against his will. You'd do something like that if you didn't want someone knowing where you were."

"Maybe. And I'll apologise to them if I'm overreacting. But right now I'm going to phone Diana."

**5th February  
09:24 GMT -4**

Zatanna and I transition to a copse of trees in the park across the road from Alan's home. There are a few people out walking and I see a man having a kickabout with his children, but none of them spare us more than a fleeting glance. Trees break line of sight, so obviously they didn't see us before because we were behind a tree. Right?

Diana was a little sceptical, but since she wasn't exceptionally busy she agreed to stand by to intervene. She was in the Embassy at the time so she should be overhead in about two minutes. Unfortunately, we can't _really_ wait. I said five minutes and I haven't ever made any secret of how fast I can move. Have to assume that we're under observation. Zatanna and I both have bare bones body armour on under our clothing and her coat carries several protective enchantments placed there by her father. The rings are near full charge… Not really any more preparation we can do at short notice.

There aren't many people I'd actually worry about in a fight these days. At my insistence Alan _doesn't_ wear his ring full time. Taking him unawares wouldn't be all that hard. I'm fully loaded with Mage Slayer and Crumbler rounds. Our plan is to talk whoever it is into letting us check that Alan is basically unharmed then violently evacuating him. I can spend the rest of the weekend rebuilding his house. Shadowcrest's dust sheet aren't going anyw-.

Connection made to monitored telephone line from priority source. Location: second public telephone, BP, Happy Harbour branch.

Whu?

I stop and Zatanna follows suit a moment later. "What is it?"

"The ring says someone's trying to get hold of me." Ring, who is it?

"Phone call is from the office of Alexander Luthor."

"Lex? Um." What? I start walking again, putting my right arm around Zatanna's waist and taking a mobile out of subspace to hold in my left. Answer. "Lex, good morning. What can I do for you?"

"Paul." I barely twitch these days. The trick is to hear sound and not meaning. "Have I done anything to antagonise the Justice League lately?"

I smile. "I don't know. Have you?"

There's some sort of dull tap in the background. Someone knocking on the door?

"_To the best of your knowledge_."

"No? Look, Lex, I'm a little busy. Could you..?"

"I'm under attack. I'm not sure who is behind it. Do you believe that your young colleagues could have taken the initiative?"

"Going after you without approval? Doubt it. Training activities for today consist of a lecture on traditional magic practice in Europe and I think tomorrow the Atlanteans are visiting the Smithsonian. Unless something very strange has happened since I spoke to Wonder Woman **three minutes ago** no one on our end is planning on attacking your anything. And if we _were_, we certainly wouldn't do it at half past nine when there'd be all sorts of innocent bystanders." Ring, check location of my team mates?

I feel pings in my head. Wallace is still in Central City, Rob's still in England and everyone else is in Happy Harbour.

"Yeah, not it. If your security people can't cope I understand that Superman is usually-."

The phone goes dead. I lower it before returning it to subspace.

"What was that about?"

We halt for a moment as we reach the road. "Someone's attacking LexCorp and Lex thought it could have been us." Once the cars have passed we cross. I try getting a look through Alan's front window but I can't see anything. "I said it wasn't, then he hung up. I'm not going to worry about it until I know that Alan's safe."

"You don't think they just didn't tell us?"

"Attacking LexCorp would be a major escalation. I could -_maybe_\- see Batman having Robin sneak in, but that wouldn't be an _attack_ attack."

I look around as we walk up Alan's driveway, heading for his front door. The gate was slightly open, but that isn't unusual. Nothing else looks amiss, but as we get closer I feel Zatanna shiver. "Magic. Someone's put powerful spells around his house."

"But we're prepared for magic. Anyone who knows anything about us would know that."

I let go of her and tap on the front door with my right knuckles.

"It's open!"

Sounded like Alan. I looks at Zatanna with raised eyebrows and she nods. Obviously, if there's such a thing as True Seeing then True Hearing must exist as well. That wasn't a sensory illusion, though recordings, mundane impressions and mind control compelled speech wouldn't be detected. I nod back and turn the door handle, pushing the door gently so that it swings open. No sign of a disturbance in the hallway. Out of the sight of the exterior I form a railgun construct and load a Mage Slayer. Next, I send filaments into the house. I can feel the hallway but whenever they try to cross a threshold they are stopped. I _could_ force the matter, but I'm happy to keep it quiet for now. I walk into the house and Zatanna follows me, closing the door behind her.

"Alan, where are you?" My power armour materialises around me from subspace. I'll have to walk a little carefully to avoid giving the game away, though with a little luck my habit of wearing heavy boots should mitigate that somewhat.

"Living room!"

"Is it.. hot in here, or is it just me?"

"Alan's in his nineties. And you **are** wearing a coat." Ambient is up a little, but I haven't kept track of what sort of temperature Alan usually keeps it at. Neither Danni nor I are really affected by it. I take the lead towards the living room door, railgun prepared but the light it gives off mostly concealed behind my bulk. The door opens to one corner of the room. Alan's preferred seat is directly forwards. Two steps and turn and I'll have a full view of the room. Infrared is being deceived in the same way as the ring. Unless whoever we saw isn't in the room any longer? One last glance to check that Zatanna is ready and I turn the handle and push the door inwards.

Alan's sitting exactly where he appeared to be. He turns his head slightly as the door opens, then freezes. The newspaper is nowhere in sight. I stride forwards, skimming him with a Mage Slayer shot and creating construct armour around him as the binding circle fails.

"Oh, come on. I wasn't going to hurt him."

I experience a moment of familiarity as I hear the voice. Doesn't matter. Two steps and I'm in the room with four new railgun constructs pointing in all directions. And then I stop.

Two people are sitting on the settee under the far window, one male and one female. The female is mid teens but dresses far older. Jet black hair, pageboy haircut, knee length black skirt and black jacket, white blouse and one of the tie scarf things some women wear. The man is-

"That's better power armour than I've got. Of course, I suppose it helps-"

-thirty. Used to have long brown hair but appears to have had it cut rather severely since. His nose has a noticeable kink in the end. He was a little over a hundred and eighty three centimetres tall last time he cared to check.

"-that you have a working personal lantern."

That's… Faintly glowing blue eyes aside, that's… He's exactly how I looked before I came here. Blue… I check his hands.

"Here." He holds up his right. Blue power ring.

I… Have an alternate version?

He raises his eyebrows slightly and smiles at me. "How about you get rid of that armour so we can have a civilised conversation?"

**Earth -14  
Ultra Industries Building  
4th July  
23:09 GMT -4**

The Ultra Industries building doesn't _have_ guards on the outside. There are guards on the inside, but most of its protection comes from the fact that.. well... Ultraman owns it. The guards on the inside are disciplined and well equipped and more than a few of the Syndicate's enhanced people are just a short zeta tube journey away -to say nothing of Ultraman himself- but the exterior just looks like an office building. That's part of the psychology of the place, simultaneously saying that the head of the Crime Syndicate owns it, that his hold on the city and the world is so strong, so _sure_, that he doesn't need to bother with anything so vulgar as guards or drone weaponry. The other part is what he wants to say about himself; I'm a businessman. I work in an office, I fill in paperwork… I'm someone you can deal with. Someone you can live with.

And if you can't, and you want to do something about it? Remember the First Lady?

The **late** First Lady?

Owlman doesn't get that first part. Superwoman doesn't. I'm not sure about the rest. And I rather doubt the two I chucked into the bay earlier today are the sort to get philosophical about it. I lift my briefcase slightly to make sure that it hasn't disappeared.

Ring, give me the bad news.

Thirty nine percent maximum charge remaining.

Oh, this isn't going to get any cleverer.

I look left and right and then cross the road, heading for the entrance. Is the man himself in residence? I could try asking the ring but I don't particularly want to waste power. As it is I'm going to need to find… Ugh, where would I find a lot of hopeful people? Some sort of sporting event? Probably wouldn't be able to get it to work anyway, because what I'm feeling right now? It isn't hope.

I push open the door and take a look across the lobby.

"…buncha cry babies. You'd think they never went swimmin' before."

Oh what luck. James 'Mister Action' Olsen is leaning on the front desk, chatting to the night receptionist. Goodness me he's huge. I know he's only mildly enhanced compared with some and _nothing_ like as strong as his boss but I think I could probably fit inside one of his **arms**.

"Alright,-" He slowly turns towards me. "-what is it…" He actually does a double take as he sees me, then his eyes narrow as he catches sight of the badge pinned to my left lapel. "The… Balls on you…" He raises his hands to his chest and cracks the knuckles of his right hand. "Saves on hun'in' you down I suppose."

_Talk fast_! "Mister Olsen, I'm afraid that there's been a rather unfortunate misunderstanding."

He keeps coming. "Unfortunate for _you_, maybe."

"Yes! Quite right. That's my exact point. I'm.. new in town, and had no idea-" He keeps coming and I'm backing up towards the far wall. No point running anywhere on Earth and where **else** could I go? _**Qward?**_ "-that the two I assaulted were members of your organisation and I.. came here to formally apologise-" And there's the wall. "-to the boss." He comes to a stop, looming over me. "Iiif that's at all possible." I gingerly hold out the case towards him.

He looks me over again before taking hold of it around the side with his right hand. "If there's somethin' supposed t'be clever in here, you know I'm bullet proof. I ain't exactly gunna be impressed."

I smile in a way that's probably more than slightly manic. "No tricks."

He supports it on one shovel sized hand and opens the latches with two delicate presses of his left forefinger. He might look like a brute but he isn't one; he has a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration and manages the illegal parts of Ultraman's empire for him. I mean, why would Ultraman of all people want **dumb** muscle? Mister Scott further told me that Ultraman himself paid for Mister Olsen's education as a thank you for his guidance when Ultraman took over the Metropolis underworld. He lifts the lid very slightly and takes a look at the contents. "These real?"

"I wouldn't dare come here with _fake_, would I?"

He closes the case and shoves it into my chest. I take hold of it as he turns away. "You're in luck, Power Ring Blue. Ultraman's in tonight. Dunno if he'll wanna tawk t'ya. He's got guests in."

"I quite understand that he's a busy man. I won't take up much of his time."

"Damn right ya won't." He reaches behind the desk to pick up a phone and bring it onto the surface before taking the handset and dialling. His eyes rest on me with a vaguely curious air until someone on the other end picks up. "Hey CK. At the front desk. Yeah, I was…" A slightly longer pause. "Sure. You know that guy Trainwreck was whinin' about from earlier? Yeah, that's the one. Yeah, it is. He's here. Wants to…" He shakes his head. "Nah, nah, says he wants to apologise t'yah." His eyes drift back to the case. "Yeah, got that covered. I know, I know, I'll get it sorted…" Back to my face. "I'll bring him up right now. Yeah." He puts the phone down. "Looks like youse in luck." He points to the far end of the room where the lifts are. "Elevator. Now."

No need to tell me twice. I walk over to them at a brisk pace, hesitating at the touchpad. Mister Olsen comes up behind me and reaches past to touch his finger tips against it. The area under them glows red for a moment before turning green and then the lift doors slide open. He walks into them and turns around to face me. I join him and he presses the gold-coloured 'U' button at the top of the control panel before folding his arms across his chest. The lift begins to rise. Ultraman's apartment is near the top, just below his 'official' reception area and office. Looks like we're going all the way up.

"Sooo… How do you rate my chances of survival."

He grunts. "Not up to me."

Nothing to do until we get to the top, then. I look around the lift interior. There are speakers, but no music is playing. The interior dimensions are certainly larger than most lifts I've been in, though whether that's to cope with regular business hours traffic or to accommodate large people like Mister Olsen I'm not sure. Okay. Mister Scott -I rub the bases of my thumbs- said this was my best chance. I'm not a _great_ judge of criminal megalomaniacs -I spoke to _him_ after all- but I can't see any reason for him to lie to me. In fact I got a tiny sense of… I don't know, I assume it was meant to be hope but I don't think hope is supposed to have those sinister undertones to it.

Nothing to do now. I unfocus my eyes and run through the first stage of Goldeneye for the Nintendo 64 in my head. Move to the wall to your left, edge around until you have a shot at the first guard's head. Aim, one shot or two depending on difficulty setting. Forwards, aim across to the far side of the starting area. Depending on the position of the guard, either cross to the guard tower and wait or aim and take a shot with the pistol. Around the side of the guard tower, aim and shoot the third guard in the head. Up the guard tower, around the security glass and in, picking up the sniper rifle. Aim down the t-.

There's a chime and the lift doors open onto a short corridor. Mister Olsen gives me a shove. "Start walkin'. First left."

I start walking. The floor is either marble or a convincing substitute. There are pictures on the walls, either Ultraman or… That's his father, isn't it? Posed with various allies or celebrities. I suppose that in here they don't need to pretend. As I reach the door I transfer the case to my left hand and raise my right to knock.

"He's not waitin' on yeh. Just go in an' wait fer _him_." Right. I turn the handle and open the door. Inside, the most notable features are the two large desks and the floor to ceiling window leading to a balcony. Obviously Ultraman wants easy access to the sky. Be inconvenient to have to get the glaziers in every time he went flying. Mister Olsen points to an area of floor in front of one of the desks with his right forefinger. "Stand there and don't touch nothin'."

I stand there and I don't touch nothing as Mister Olsen takes up position by the door behind me. I wonder what sort of mood Ultraman will be in? I know this version isn't the cuckolded idiot from Earth 2 but I'm not all that familiar with other versions of the char-.

A door in the far side of the room opens and Ultraman walks through. His costume is a solid blue with a gold belt and bracers. No external underwear. I suppose no criminal organisation would respect someone dressed like that even if he _could_fire heat beams out of his eyes. His cape is red on the back and gold inside, with gold shoulder pads and a blue 'U' outlined in gold on his chest. Though nothing like as large as Mister Olsen he is an extremely big man. He nods at Mister Olsen and then takes up position behind his desk, glowering at me. "Alright. Let's hear it."

**Earth -14  
Ultra Industries Building  
4th July  
23:16 GMT -4**

"I, um." Good start. My eyes drop to his desk. "I wanted to apologise to you. Earlier today.. as you're well aware… I got into a fight with a couple of your employees. I.. just thought they were thugs with super powers and… I'll be honest, I don't feel particularly bad about.. what I did to them. But, it was drawn to my attention later-" The fingers of my right hand curl towards my right thumb again. "-that they were associated with your organisation… With-" I gesture to him with my right hand. "-you, and that by publicly trouncing them I may have caused you embarrassment. And for that I wish to apologise and make recompense." I hold up my briefcase and hold it out towards him. I stand there awkwardly for a moment. When he doesn't move to take it I lean slightly forwards and set it down on his desk.

He glances down at it, presumably examining the contents with x-ray vision. A moment passes and he nods to himself. "Wised up pretty fast."

"Yessir."

"You talk to someone?"

"Yessir. Mister Scott was kind-" His eyes go back to me and his eyebrows raise slightly. "-enough to give me a few pointers on local realpolitik."

"Al Scott? No kiddin'." Was that a question? I don't think that was a question. He takes a step forwards towards his side of his desk, pulls the briefcase towards him and opens it fully. Another small nod. He reaches in with his right hand and takes out one of the gold coins, regarding it curiously. He looks over both sides and nearly smiles. "Hey Jimmy, you seen this? Coins with my face on 'em."

"Didn't look that close, CK."

Ultraman tosses another to him. I daren't turn around to see if he caught it. "And a 'U' on the back. What's this on the edge?" He actually smiles this time. "Cui Bono?"

"I understand that's the motto of the Syndicate, sir."

"Where'd you get this, anyway?"

"I created the design myself." His eyes flick back up in a low intensity glare. "ThegoldIgot from an asteroid I mined.. um, earlier today. After speaking to Mister Scott."

He nods again and puts the coin back into the briefcase. "Al Scott, eh? Still got all your arms and legs attached?"

"I… He left me off with a _light_ maiming, sir. Since I was new. Fortunately, blue power rings can reattach thumbs." I use my fingers to check once again that they haven't fallen off.

"Heh. Yeah, that sounds like him." He closes the case and slides it to the side. "Not bad, as apologies go. Time was I'd have Jimmy here rough you up just so you'd remember not to do it again, but I'm in a good mood today. Guess it's like Pa says; people fuck up sometimes. No sense blowin' things out of proportion if it wasn't intentional and they're real sorry about it." Another glare. "And you _are_ real sorry about it."

"Oh yes sir."

Another nod. I'm good? Was **not** expecting that.

"Ambient hope detected. Charging. Charge: forty percent."

I clamp my left hand over my right and consider that getting scared doesn't _reduce_ my charge.

Ultraman looks at -or more likely through- my hand. "That really a power ring?"

"Yessir."

"How long you had it?"

"Nearly a day now."

Something about that unsettles him. "You flew out to the asteroid belt and back in less than a day?"

"That was more like a few minutes. Construct strength is dependant on emotional intensity and I'd just found out I had a chance **not** to get torn limb from limb."

"I know Al's ring gets stronger the more people who're afraid of him. Yours runs off of hope?" I nod. "Al's real picky about who he gives advice to. He musta taken a real shine t'you if he thought it was worth tryin' t'keep you alive." He thinks for a moment. "I tell you what; a few a' my guys -includin' the two you had that bust up with- are down stairs right now. Come down have a drink with us, make sure everyone knows everything's square."

If the Sopranos taught me anything it's that you don't say no when a mob boss offers you a drink. "Thank you, sir. I'd appreciate that."

"Ain't nothin'." He nods at Mister Olsen who leads the way out of the door. I follow along behind him. No 'U' on the cape, I note. "I was a big fan a' Al's when I was growin' up. Any friend a' his…"

"Sir, it… Might be overstating things to describe us as 'friends'."

"Heh. Close enough." There's a stairwell up ahead and Mister Olsen leads the way down.

"Sir, may I ask a question?" He glances at me and shrugs. "Is there some.. particular occasion? Mister Olsen said that you were entertaining."

"I just found out I'm a father."

"Oh. Congratulations."

"Luthor cooked him up inna lab some a' the kids busted up. Plannin' t'use him as a weapon or somethin'. Jimmy, remind me t' do somethin' nice for Talon, Jackie and that Mayhem girl."

"You got it CK."

We leave the stairs and start towards what looks like Ultraman's living room. I can dimly hear conversation. "Ain't nothin' more important than family. An' my Made Men are family. It's like Pa says, be good to your people an' they'll be good to you."

"He sounds like a very sensible man, sir."

"Ah, don't you be callin' me 'sir'. Little people call me 'sir'. My guys-" He lays his right arm over my shoulders. "-call me 'Boss' or 'Ultraman'."

A**a**a**a**a**a**a**a**a**a**_a_?

"See, you squared things with me an' the Syndicate, but if Trainwreck and Meltdown go after you on their own, I got no grounds to intervene if you're just some guy." He looks down at me and tightens his grip slightly. Gosh he's well muscled. "But family? Family's different. If you're family, thing're a lot more civilised."

"And I'm a big fan of civilised, s-. **Ultraman**."

"Thought ya might be. Hey!" He lets go of me and walks ahead of me into the room. "Eddy! Maria! Get over here!" A man built like a slightly shorter version of Mister Olsen and a more conventionally proportioned woman with faint trails of plasma floating around her head turn towards Ultraman as he leads me towards the bar. Then they spot me. The man -Eddy the Trainwreck- balls his fists and Maria Meltdown's hair catches fire. I nervously follow on after Ultraman as the bartender hands him a tray with four whiskey glasses and a decanter. Ultraman takes the stopper out before looking at his two established henchpeople. "Knock it off. Power Ring's made amends. He's joining the family so you're havin' a drink and buryin' the hatchet."

Eddy looks more than a little displeased. "This guy? Why? I hadda swim fer half a fuckin' hour t'get back t'dry land."

"'Cause this guy _could_ throw you both into the bay after having a power ring for a couple hours. That, and Al Scott vouched for him."

I get another glare, but with Ultraman laying down the law the matter appears to be settled for the moment. Ultraman pours a finger of whiskey into each glass and hands one to each of us. I hold mine out towards my former opponents. "Your health."

They hesitate for a moment, then grudgingly tap their glasses against mine. Ultraman does the same and then each of us _oh God this still tastes horrible!_

"What's up with you?"

_"Not much of a drinker, Ultraman."_

Eddy and Maria look at me, then each other, then knock their drinks back before looking at me expectantly.

Darn it. Still, if this is the worst thing that _ugh_… That happens today, I'll consider myself to have got off lightly.

**Earth -14  
Ultra Industries Building  
5th July  
00:52 GMT -4**

"Hey, Power Ring." Oh thank goodness. Now there's a phrase I never thought I'd use in connection with Mister Olsen. "Ultraman wants you to sit in on a meetin'."

Apparently there's not a single Made Man in this place who doesn't find me trying to drink liquor absolutely hilarious. They've been taking it in turns to welcome me into the Syndicate. If the number of gangsters who'll drink with you can be taken as a sign of popularity then I think I must be the toast of the organisation by now. "Happy to oblige." I raise my empty glass to my current drinking partner, a pale skinned man with a truly disturbing shark-like jaw. "Duty calls, I'm afraid."

"T**a**k**e** i**t** e**a**s**y**, m**a**n."

I _think_ he's smiling. I put my glass down and follow Mister Olsen away from the bar. "I've been wondering; what is it I'm meant to call you? I mean, it's codenames for everyone else. Mister Action?"

He makes a dismissive motion with his left hand. "Nobody calls me that. Luthor stuck it in some stoopid briefin' paper an' Johnny Quick thought it'd be funny t' spread it around. You call me Jimmy, just like everybody else."

"I'm just.. trying to get my head around the hierarchy. I already.. messed up once by not knowing-."

"How come youse still tawkin' after that much liquor? Hell, I was expectin' t'have t'carry you."

"I've no idea what my alcohol threshold is, but it turns out that poison purging is a fairly low power ring function."

"Good thinkin'. Okay, it's like this; Ultraman is the head of the Syndicate. Just below him you got the rest of the Management; Owlman, Superwoman-."

"J'edd J'arkus, Johnny Quick and Power Ring Green."

"Who don't actually have a power ring."

"Really?"

"Yeah. He turned up doin' the same stuff as Al Scott, everybody called him Power Ring. He's actually got this sorta gauntlet thing. Anyway, each member of the Management runs their parta the Syndicate differently. Under Ultraman you got me and Pete Ross runnin' mosta the business. Guys back there, they're mostly just muscle. Get put on jobs where we need to lean on someone or where we need heavy protection. Ones who prove they got brains get their own little projects an' report straight t'Ultraman." He stops at a door and pulls it open. "Get in."

I get. Ultraman is sitting in a soft leather chair at one end of a circle of chairs. Next to him on his right is a youth wearing black jeans and a blue t-shirt decorated with a gold 'U' mirroring Ultraman's own. On Ultraman's left is a large empty chair, Jimmy's I assume. Opposite those three are two other seats. One is occupied by a bald black man in a very nice looking suit. He looks around as I walk in. I'm assuming that's Pete Ross. I know he was black in Smallville but I think he's white pretty much everywhere else but here. The other chair is empty.

Jimmy crosses the room and Mister Ross stands to greet me. "So, you're the new guy." His voice is warm and friendly and almost entirely without the Bronx accent shared by Ultraman and Jimmy. He holds out his right hand. "I'm Pete Ross. Hopefully we won't be seeing too much of each other." I take his hand, but it's clear from my expression that I don't understand what he meant. "Among other things I'm head of legal affairs for Ultraman's syndicate. You'll only usually see me at social events like this or if you get in trouble with the law. And trouble with the law usually impacts our operations and profits margins."

"I'll try to ensure that doesn't happen, Mister Ross."

He pats me on the right upper arm with his left hand. "Glad to hear it." He releases me and turns away to retake his seat. Am I supposed to wait for permission to.. sit.. myself..? Ultraman appears to notice, rolls his eyes and nods at the remaining chair. I sit.

"Now everyone's here, let's get this started. Power Ring, you're gonna be working with Pete for a few days." I nod. "We'll need t'sort out paperwork for yah, bank account, immigration, stuff like that. And it'll be good for him t'have protection that ain't on the government radar."

"I should.. probably warn you.. if you're going to be depending on me. Without a personal lantern I can only charge from ambient hope and that's not exactly fast. If Mister Ross is actually expecting an attack…"

Ultraman shakes his head. "We got no intel anyone's plannin' anythin'. If we did, I wouldn't stick a new guy on it. This is just t'get you used to workin' as parta the family." I nod. "You got a name?"

"Yes, but, for reasons I don't really understand I don't seem able to say it anymore. Um, sorry."

"What'd'ya mean, ya can't say it?"

"I try saying it, my jaw locks up. I think about it too hard, I faint."

Jimmy shakes his head. "That's gotta be the dumbest weakness I ever hurd."

The youth shrugs. "Why does he even need a name? I don't have a name apart from Ultraboy."

Ultraman turns his head to look at his.. son..? With an almost pained expression on his face. When he said he just had a son I was assuming he meant an infant. But I think Superboy got out of Cadmus as a young boy in the comics. "Fer real?"

Another shrug, his expression shifting from neutral to uncomfortable. "Yeah Pa."

"Ah, that ain't no good. You gotta have a name fer yerself. What name d'you like?"

"I don't know. Why don't…" He glances nervously at his father. "You pick something?"

"Alright." He turns back to me. "Power Ring, decanter on the table." I nod, getting up and walking around the outside of the circle of chairs to fetch it and five glasses. "I got named after Ma. My first name's the same as her maiden name. Don't think I'll call you Luthor though, uh?" He nudges Ultraboy with his elbow while smiling the first proper smile I've seen him make. Ultraboy mirrors it, a little uncertainly.

I pour the drinks and then… I could be safe here. This could work for me. I could be part of this. I float the drinks in front of each of the other men while walking back to my seat.

Ultraman takes his, then notices the one I sent towards Ultraboy and grabs that as well. "Hey, what's the big idea?"Aaaaaah... "He's not even a day old. He doesn't get liquor!" Mister Ross and Jimmy chuckle as I try and slow my heart rate a little.

"Why not? I can take it."

Ultraman smiles, nudging his son with his right elbow. "It's a joke, ya dumb mook. Here." He hands the glass over and Ultraboy takes it. "Should probably go easy, though. You ain't used to it."

"Thanks."

"Your Grandpa didn't let _me_ have my first drink 'til I could sneak it out of his liquor cabinet without him noticing. An' people say **I** got x-ray vision." Something occurs to him. "Speakin' a' Pa, I got a name for yah. 'Jonathan Kent', after him." Ultraman raises his eyebrows. "Well? What'd'yah think?"

"I…" Ultraboy nods. "I like it. Um, thanks."

"Ain't nothin'." Ultraman raises his glass. "Jonathan Kent."

"Jonathan Kent." / "Jonathan Kent." / "Jonathan Kent."

We each take a sip.

"Now, business. Pete, where do we stand on that whole mess at Cadmus?"

"One of Luthor's front companies. We'd been watching it for a while, but there was no sign they were doing anything like this." He nods at Ultraboy. "I've got some guys going over the site now. Should be able to give you a full report tomor-." He checks his watch. "This afternoon." He looks off to the side, shaking his head slightly. "I honestly have no idea how Talon worked out what they were up to."

Ultraman makes a dismissive gesture with his right hand. "Could be Owlman's been holding out on us, could be alla that cybernetic crap he put in the boy's head. Supposed to give him improved intuitive reasoning."

Jimmy turns his head to look at his boss. "Coulda been dumb luck too. Jackie an' Mary ain't exactly got great plannin' skills."

"Am I going to see them again?" Ultraboy hesitates as he gets our attention, then presses on. "I owe them for getting me out. And it was.. fun. Fighting alongside them."

Ultraman nods contemplatively. "Johnny was making some noise about settin' up some sorta academy fer.. second generation Syndicate members. Can't learn how to run a numbers game in High School."

Do it. "And those are the youths who might end up running the Syndicate one day. It might be good for them to get used to working together. I don't know how well you get on with the rest of the Management…"

"Could be better, could be worse." He considers. "Could work out. Okay, I'll let Johnny know that I support the idea before the next Management meetin'. Next item; police action in Boston…"

**5th February  
09:32 GMT -4**

"Or I could just brand you both and compel you to tell me anything I want to know. "

He frowns. "That doesn't sound like me." Blue me turns to his partner. "Zorina, do I sound like that?"

Zorina? Sounds.. a little familiar, but I can't place it… She shakes her head, still smiling. "Not usually."

"If this is about Alan-"

"**Yes**."

"-our version of Alan Scott is a semi-retired supervillain with a yellow power ring. First time I met him? He beat me into submission and _then_ cut my thumbs off. This time I decided to take a slightly more precautionary approach."

"Why did you even _need_ to meet him?"

"I needed information."

Zatanna comes up behind me, intelligently keeping me between the potential attack and herself. "You've got a power ring. If you wanted to know what's going on why not just hack into people's databases?"

He frowns. "For some reason, getting hold of interesting databases around here is quite a bit harder than I'm used to. Plus I.. don't like using ring power if I don't have to." I _don't_ miss Zorina poking him in the leg, though her expression doesn't change. "You…" His eyes narrow. "You've got _two_?! How the heck did you get two?"

"You're under arrest."

Zorina shakes her head. "No, we're not."

Zatanna nods. "Are too."

He waves his right forefinger. "No, we're not. Two reasons. Firstly, you don't have arrest authority-."

"Actually, I do. Well, Diana does and I'm legally acting under her authority. I _can_ arrest you."

"Oh. Okay, one reason."

Zatanna raises an eyebrow. "And that is..?"

The heat in the room intensifies as the area around Alan turns into a conflagration! The construct armour protects him as he tries to step away but a muscular arm grabs him around the chest! The flames drop back a little, revealing… Wings. The fires are _wings_. I see feathers made of flame that somehow retain their shape. The figure's arms are covered in dull bronze coloured armour, faintly glowing runes I half-recognise from John's diabolic texts. Over the armour the figure wears black robes, a burning pentagram decorating the chest. The skin of the face is chalk white, the eyes black holes with candle flames for pupils. Across Alan's throat it holds a burning sword.

"Meet Zauriel the Fallen." The armour on his arms has silver chains running along it, attached to it in several places along his forearms and disappearing into his robes. "Dad assigned him to be my bodyguard. Mostly, he just likes to kill things."

A Fallen Angel. Mage Slayers _should_ work, but I've got no idea how fast his reflexes are and that sword is visibly cutting through the construct armour around Alan. Ring, plot transition.

Unable to comply.

My alter ego leans forwards. "I want to talk to you because I believe that we can.. help each other. Mister Giovanni Zatara disappeared from public view at the same time as the new Fate appeared. Since Kent Nelson's dead, that rather implies Zatara took on the role. That and.. there weren't any recent genetic traces in Shadowcrest."

Zatanna looks horrified. "How did you get in?"

Zorina's smile broadens slightly. "For some reason, the spells on the house thought we were _you_. But that's besides the point. My father is in a similar situation to yours and I presume that you are no more willing to accept it than I am."

"Why would _your_ father put on a Helmet containing a Lord of Order?"

Zorina raises her right eyebrow. "Doctor Chaos, a Lord of Order? We could have _handled_ a Lord of Order."

"I don't care what he's a Lord of. Why did your father put it on? He's probably a serial killer-"

My alter ego flicks up his right forefinger. "Mafia don."

"-and doesn't care about anyone or anything. My father is a superhero!"

Zorina's expression goes cold. "He cares about **me**."

The Zeds stare at each other. Whatever spells Zorina put on the place are preventing me from using empathic vision on her. What do I think? We could certainly use whatever data they have, Lords of whatever sort having essentially the same structure. And I don't think that most of what we've learned so far has implications for the other parts of their…

Evil parallel universe.

"You work for the Crime Syndicate, don't you?"

He tilts his head to the side. "Just.. _Syndicate_, thank you."

"Which..?"

"According to Lex Luthor -_our_ Lex Luthor- we come from parallel negative fourteen. And this-" He has a look around the room. "-is sixteen. I've no idea how the numbering system works."

"But… _**Wee**_ come from…"

"Yeeeah, don't know how that works either. So, are we talking or… Are you going to try shooting?"

I send a filament to Zatanna's ear. "I think this could be worth pursuing. Tap your right foot twice if you can accept that."

Zatanna glances my way, then back at our alter egos. "What about Alan?"

"Zauriel, back off."

"Mistress, this one was a warrior. I feel the blood and violence of decades within him. Let him have his weapon and **earn** his freedom!"

"No. Leiruaz, reffus emertxe niap."

The chains on his wrist and under his robes glow brilliantly. He tilts his head back, his face screwed up in pain, a raspy gurgling noise hissing through his lips.

She makes a dismissive motion with her right hand. "Evael Nala Enola."

"I will.. _Ghuh!_" His sword moves aside and he staggers backwards. "Mortal whore! I will find a way to break these chains, and when I do-!"

"Ssel Gniklat." Zorina smoothly rises from her seat and walks towards him. "No, you won't. If you were intelligent enough to do that you would have been intelligent enough not to have tried to pick a fight with all four Angel Kings. At once." She stops just in front of him and reaches up to his face with her right hand, placing her palm on his cheek. "Do you want to go back to hell? Do you miss the acid baths that badly? I can send you back with a _word_, Zauriel. You really do need to learn how to channel that anger of yours." She pushes and he collapses -shuddering- back against the wall of the room. Zorina then turn back to me and pointedly looks at my railguns. I glance at Zatanna. She looks Alan over quickly and then taps her foot. I return the rounds to subspace and remove the constructs.

"Alan, you alright?"

"Think so." He presses his right hand to his neck. I think there's a burn there. Which I can't heal, darn it. "Considering."

"I'm.. sorry about that, Mister Scott." My alter ego has the temerity to actually **look** sorry as well. "Zauriel still hasn't gotten over not being allowed to kill King Herod." He switches his attention back to me. "Why don't you and I go and have a chat somewhere private. I'm sure you've got as many questions for me as I have for you."

A flash of orange light-

**5th February  
02:47 GMT -11**

"Recognised, Orange Lantern, B zero six. Recognised, guest."

-and we appear in the Fortress' embarkation room. Zauriel faded back to wherever he came from once Zorina had enough of disciplining him. Can't imagine what Angels are like in a negative parallel if they're as bad as John tells me _here_. I wasn't sure what to tell Diana so I reported that we'd made contact with people from a parallel universe, they seemed peaceful but could she please stay on standby. I'm still in full armour. With angelic backup Zorina is far more dangerous than Zatanna but the reverse is true of my own alter ego. Plus… I put a bit of effort into bypassing Zorina's scrambler effect and got the distinct impression that she was genuinely looking forward to speaking to Zatanna for conversation's sake alone.

"Where are we?"

"We're in the vicinity of the North Pole, aboard a flying fortification I've assigned to refreezing the icecaps."

"You…" He has another look around the room. "Did you build it yourself?"

Now I have time to take a closer look, he _doesn't_ look quite like I used to. For a start, his hair is much shorter, as short as mine was back in early primary school. He's fitter as well, and I think there are a few grey hairs I don't remember having on his head. "No. Five of them were used to cover most of the United States in a blizzard. Guy and I were able to capture this one intact."

He nods. "Guy… Gardner?" He looks at me again. "Belligerent version, idiot version, softie version..?"

"None of them, really. He got hit by a bus which caused him to get replaced by Lantern Stewart. He's got a temper, but he's having such a run of success that it isn't really causing problems for him." He nods. "Alright. How about we start from the beginning?"

"How about you take your helmet off?"

"I have _scanned_ your nanotech infection."

"You don't have one?"

"Nanotech's _**insane**_ here. Why are _you_ using it?"

He throws his arms out to the side. "No personal lantern! And it's not even that useful!" He exhales sharply. "Are you taking the helmet off?"

I suppose it's not like my environmental shield can't just exclude it. Ring, switch to medium armour.

"Compliance."

His eyes widen as he sees my face. "What..? You..?"

"Pretty much the first thing I did with the ring. I didn't even.. do it intentionally. You know how we're afraid of…"

"Death."

"Not existing, and.. losing faculties. "

"So… It just..?"

"Made me exactly as I wanted to be. Fixed my nose, my skin, gave me a heroic physique…"

His mouth hangs open for a moment. "Are you playing on fucking easy mode?"

He's not angry at me, just frustrated with the situation. "How.. similar are we. I-?"

"Earth Prime, or.. something like that. And we ended up in a universe straight out of DC comics."

I smile. "You know the 'C' in 'DC' stands for-."

"Pedant."

We both do the exact same amused snort.

"I left on the fourteenth of August, two thousand and thirteen. Woke up on the fifth of July, two thousand and ten."

He nods. "I left on the same day. Arrived a day earlier."

"Antimatter universe… Is it like in Earth Two? The comic, not-."

He shakes his head. "No, it's… Nothing like that bad. _Their_ society shouldn't function, and negative fourteen **does**. It's like… Normal criminals don't want to attract police attention, so they usually try and keep things quiet? There _were_ criminal gangs headed by supervillains.. but.. they weren't wrecking cities for fun or anything."

"Why did you join them?"

His expression sobers for a moment, then he snorts with laughter again. "Ultraman made me an offer I couldn't refuse."

"Hahehehehe." I shake my head. "How..? Exactly..?"

"On my first day, I got into a fight with a couple of his… They're called 'Made Men'. Supervillains who work for a member of the Syndicate Management. Then I went to see Alan Scott.. and.. he turned out to be a Yellow Lantern." He pauses, looking at the floor. "And **that** was when I found out exactly how much trouble I was in. Managed to.. square things with Ultraman-." Something occurs to him. "He wasn't like the comic version. He was actually an intelligent man."

"'Was'?"

"He's dead now, along with the rest of the old Management." He slumps slightly. "So… How about you?" He looks me over again. "Wait, you got **two** rings?"

"I took the second one-" I wave my right hand. "-from Lantern Stewart in a fight while he was being mind controlled. To be honest, the database was the most useful-."

"Y-! **Uhrh**!" He waves his right hand at me, ring signet facing outwards. "No database, no lantern. I had to hang around hopeful people on a planet that was nearly run by the Syndicate to recharge a couple of _percent_!"

"Wasn't there a 'Power Ring' in the Syndicate?"

"Yes, but he had a power.. gauntlet.. thing. No database there either. Not that I think he'd have shared it if there was. He was already annoyed about me using the same name as him."

I nod. "I had an easier time. Once Alan had a chance to talk to me, he called Diana… Wonder Woman. I took a magic binding oath and he handed over his personal lantern. Took a lot of power to turn it from green to orange, but I haven't had to deal with… Your problem."

"Even if I could transform it, I'm pretty sure my Alan wouldn't be willing to part with his. Especially now."

"Zorina said that your Giovanni Zatara put on a helmet containing a Lord of Chaos?" He nods. "Why?"

"Why did yours do it? I don't remember anything about Nabu possessing people from the comics."

"Neither do I, but apparently that's how he works here. It was… You know that thing in the comics where that child somehow gets hold of a genie and makes it so there are two Earths, one with children and one with adults?"

"I did do _some_ research. He put it on to fight.. Klarion?"

"No. Zatanna did. He offered himself as an exchange."

He frowns. "Why didn't he just… Not put it on?"

I close my eyes for a moment and shake my head. "Honour before reason. And before you ask, Klarion had shut down this ring so I couldn't stop him. Why did _your_ Giovanni Zatara put it on?"

"Why the Don put it on goes back to-."

"Wait. **Don Giovanni**?"

He waits patiently for me to shut up. "The reason he put it on goes back to the whole reason why the Syndicate formed in the first place. Governor Slade Wilson."

**5th February  
02:52 GMT -11**

"Deathstroke the Terminator became a Governor?"

"Is he actually called that here?"

"What? Oh, no, just 'Deathstroke'. Haven't actually met him yet. I mean, power ring, bloke with sword. Didn't really seem worth prioritising."

"Fricking unlimited charges…" Another quick look around the room. "Do you have.. chairs, or something?"

I deposit two comfy chairs out of subspace facing one another and we both sit. "Governor Wilson?"

"**President** Wilson these days." He pauses for a moment. "On Earth negative fourteen Sergeant Major Slade 'The Pacifier' Wilson went into politics after he was discharged from the American army." He waves his right hand in the direction of his right eye. "Honourably discharged." I nod. "He started out as an advisor to a couple of candidates, building up his support base within the Republican party before standing for office himself. His chosen platform was law and order."

"He went after the Syndicate?"

He shrugs. "What Syndicate? There was no Syndicate. Oh, there were supervillains. Criminal gangs, but.. they didn't cooperate much. Ultraman and Owlman openly hated each other. Their organisations used to spend more time fighting each other than they did fighting the Justice Underground. Ultraman got on better with J'edd J'arkus, but for the most part 'alpha dog' supervillains either fought each other or just avoided each other."

"So who was he going after?"

"The idea of the Syndicate. I mean, I'm not saying they were harmless or anything, but things were running like Ankh-Morpork. Most gangs intentionally kept their activity below a certain level and the police tended to avoid them because trying to fight them would have been suicide. Wilson pushed for almost unlimited resources to be put into fighting.. 'the Syndicates of super powered criminals which beset this great country…' He won the election-."

"And the 'not Syndicate' didn't.. get involved?"

"I don't know if the local supervillains didn't think he'd win, or they tried and it wasn't enough… No way to find out now. Ultraman's people were keeping an eye on things, but it was Vermont and he didn't have any real presence there. I don't know what the others thought of it. Anyway, he didn't quite go full police state but it wasn't far off. A load of ex-military people got hired on as state troopers and _every_ incident of supervillainy got followed up on with maximum force."

"Not.. exactly.. seeing the problem."

"The military aren't exactly trained for police work. Look at our Iraq. Deaths of bystanders, false imprisonment, imprisonment without trial and deaths in custody skyrocketed. And that's not even talking about the collateral damage or the massively disproportionate sentences some things attracted. Selling a supervillain an apple was aiding and abetting. He **did** achieve his objective, though. There aren't any supervillains in Vermont anymore. Even now." A pause. "His next step was to campaign for more states to take the same approach, a campaign which involved him openly calling anyone who turned him down 'Syndicate stooges'. Well, okay, he didn't say 'stooges'. He used.. other words. Things came to a head when he announced his candidacy for the two thousand and four presidential election."

"The supervillains saw the way things were going and.. got together."

He nods. "Ultraman called a meeting of the major gang leaders; Owlman, Superwoman, Johnny Quick, Power Ring and J'edd J'arkus. A bunch of others attended as well, but they were the ones making the decisions. They agreed territorial boundaries, information sharing and other forms of cooperation. Ultraman and Owlman even shook hands."

"Why did they hate each other so much?"

"Owlman found out about kryptonite. Green doesn't do anything to Ultraman, but blue wipes him out."

"And he used it on him in a fight?"

"No. He tipped off our Lex Luthor and _he_ did. Never did find out why; Ultraman's policy was always to deal rather than confront as a first choice. He wouldn't have started anything with Owlman." He shakes his head. "After that, LexCorp grabbed as much of the stuff as it could. They got pretty close to synthesising it before Ultraman had his people wreck the place."

"So. Wilson created the Syndicate."

"Yep. Just about the only thing that could make them get together was an external attack on **all** of them. I don't know whether he honestly thought they were allies already or he just needed it for a platform, but by the time he was in the White House they were already integrating their resources. Profitability -and ambition- increased as a result. Johnny Quick actually proposed they toast Wilson at the start of their first meeting in their new lunar command centre."

"Did they kill him?"

"No. His wife. And they told him they'd kill his daughter if he went after them like he'd planned to. That was a.. major escalation and.. it could have gone very badly. Ultraman can do a lot of damage; you remember that guy in Supreme Power who tried to work out how dangerous Hyperion was and started talking about megadeaths?" I nod. "But he isn't invulnerable and he's never been comfortable with mass murder. I honestly don't know who'd have won if Wilson hadn't backed down, but there wouldn't have been much country left. But, he did. By the time I got there things had settled back down. Wilson even got re-elected, mostly because the Democratic party candidates in two thousand and eight got told what was really going on and barely bothered to campaign."

"What were you doing?"

"Rushing around trying to prove the efficacy of running a benevolent tyranny, because as far as I could tell? That was a best result we could get." He sighs. "The most likely candidates for two thousand and twelve were all on board with the status quo, the Syndicate was expanding into new countries… Then it all fell apart. Lex Luthor and the Jester broke into-."

"Who?"

"The Joker. He ended up being called the Jester rather than the Jokester for some reason, I don't know how it works. The two of them broke into a Syndicate research centre, stole something called a Quantum Trigger and fled. Jester died, but he managed to kill J'arkus doing it. Luthor made it out and used the Quantum Trigger to travel to a parallel universe-."

"And call in the Justice League."

"Ye-ep. There was some other stuff going on as well. Owlman was building a giant bomb.. for some reason…" He shakes his head. "That never made sense to me. Anyway, Luthor and the League beat the Management, killing Johnny Quick and Owlman. Wilson got the rest a few weeks later. Beat Ultraman to death himself with a crowbar."

"So you're.. hiding?"

"I don't need to hide. Getting rid of the Management didn't suddenly make the Syndicate disappear. Each individual syndicate had people around who _could_ take over running it if they had to, and… Quite a few of them went for the 'open warfare' option."

"And the Justice League?"

"Already left." He shrugs again. "Job done, right?"

"So, your Zatara?"

"He tried to get a few other less mental managers together, calm things down. Since I was running the youth team at the time I got called in. We were starting to bring the other syndicates around to our way of thinking. We even told the President that we wanted to ease off. Back down. At which point he went on television to announce that we'd be pursued to the end of the Universe and killed without mercy."

"Well, yes."

"The Super family were turning Wisconsin into a war zone! He was more worried about his bloody ego than people getting hurt! Mister Zatara lost a lot of face even _trying_ that. With the President publicly rebuking him… Us… People started drifting away. Arming up. And we were still the best hope for limiting casualties!" He takes a moment to calm down. "Our John Constantine managed to dig up a magic helmet used by a member of the Crime Lodge -our version of the Justice Society- called Doctor Chaos."

"He needed a power boost to keep things together and ended up getting..."

"A fucking lunatic controlling his body. Chaos is intelligent enough to try keeping Syndicate infrastructure together, but he's been having us destroy government targets in a precise way rather than making the attacks of opportunity the others are doing. It's just.. escalating. Running out of control. We need to get rid of him before it gets any worse. Will you help us?"

**5th February  
02:57 GMT -11**

"I'm going to want some sort of evidence before I even-."

He takes a datastick from his belt. "A few newspapers. Syndicate internal reports. Videos. Yes, I _could_ have faked them it but it would have taken a colossal amount of work."

I connect a filament to it and pull it out of his hand. Ring, analyse.

Processing. Analysis complete.

Show me.

My hands clench around the arms of my chair as the images flash through my mind. I'm not consciously aware of individual items but I am getting a sort of overview, like flicking between a series of images and seeing the object depicted moving. The shape certainly suggests he's telling the truth. I can hand it over to Batman for full analysis later. Of course, even if they are genuine that doesn't mean that the collection wasn't creatively edited.

How much do I trust myself? I know that I'm not an especially honest person and this me has spent a great deal of time living around supervillains. I doubt that brought out my better character traits. I close my eyes for a moment, then open them with empathic vision turned up all the way.

Anger's vague and diffuse. A lot of faces. Feels like day to day problems magnified by stress. Wilson's intransigence is a factor but it isn't a centre or focus.

Avarice is pervasive, but again not particularly strong. Friends and safety. I don't think he's had the resources to pursue his own objectives in the way I have. There's envy there, some sort of flying fortification… That can't be an efficient use of space. I can't see any desire to gain power to advance an agenda of his own, let alone doing so for its own sake.

Fear is spikier, shooting up from an elevated resting level. The President, the people around him, the idea that my opposite number has misjudged something and is actually in the wrong. He's constantly surrounded by people who could easily kill him, many of whom have motive to do so. Will he have misjudged? Maybe, but his judgements aren't going to be all that different to the ones which I'd have made in his place.

Those faces…

"You said you were in charge of the youth team."

"The Young Offenders. I didn't.. pick the name. Ultraboy, Talon, Mary Mayhem, Jackie Quick, Mistress Martian, Zorina Zatanna, Arrowette and Lamprey. I don't lead them on missions; Ultraboy does that. I organise them, take care of the big picture stuff and keep food in the fridge."

He's become a parental figure to a group of children who just lost theirs.

Green is simple enough. He's committed to this path. If I say no then he'll try something else somewhere else for as long as he can.

"Ultraboy and Ultraman? How well did they get on?"

His blue is different to mine but I think he's trying to use it in the same way. He genuinely hopes for a positive outcome, the Syndicate quietening down and President Wilson resigning. I don't.. do that. Heck, we're sitting in an example of me giving up on people and doing it myself. Maybe hope is what's left after you remove the **ability** to do it yourself.

"They were very close, for the few months they actually knew each other. When Talon, Mayhem and Quick broke him out of Cadmus, Ultraman… Ultraman told me later that he had two choices to maintain face. He could kill the clone, or take him in. Claim him as his own." He shrugs. "He'd had some people investigating how possible it was for him to have children for a while. He said it was an easy choice."

"Talon would be Owlman's. Jackie, Johnny's. I'm assuming that J'arkus was Martian?" He nods. "Zorina is obviously Mister Zatara's. Lamprey?"

Indigo shows me his team mates most clearly. They wouldn't have known a life other than being supervillains and now they're having to thrive or die without their mentors. And.. a short, red haired young woman? There's also compassion for the people caught up in the fights between the Syndicate's volatile elements and the US military.

"Student of Barracuda, Shogun of the Seven Seas. Aquaman."

Aqualad. "Arrowette?"

"Oliver Queen. He's called Archer. Was, anyway, he's dead now."

"Mary Mayhem?"

Violet? Looks like there's no Missus Blue Lantern. Given how intense our recent experiences are it's not surprising that our affection for our family back home has.. not faded, but move to the background somewhat. His affection for Zorina feels like the same as mine for Zatanna, though I doubt mine has that tint of fear to it. I turn the vision back down to normal.

"Superwoman's. Superwoman isn't Wonder Woman, she's our version of Mary Marvel."

"Our Mary Bloomfield's ten…"

"Yeah, I.. don't really know what happened there."

"Does she age up when she's under power like William Batson does, or what?"

He gazes into space for a moment. "Superwoman… I don't know. I never saw her depowered. I don't know exactly how old she was. I.. do know that she was in a relationship with Owlman…"

_Ew_! My face screws up without conscious direction. "Oh… That's… _Really_?"

He's still gazing into space. "He killed hundreds of people that I know about. But there's just something about him knowingly having sex with a shapeshifted little girl…"

"So… Mary Mayhem..?"

"The way she explained it to me, they used to be the same person but.. Oggar did something to split them in two?"

"Who?"

"The wizard who empowered them. I don't know if we had a Shazam and I haven't really wanted to push it. She very much doesn't like me. Or.. anyone else."

"Okay. Yes, I'll help. But **only** with Doctor Chaos."

"I'm not just asking for help. We'll be sharing information."

I nod, take a Mageslayer round out of subspace and hold it out to him. I don't really like just _asking_ for help either. "I call this a Mageslayer. I use railgun constructs to fire them. They'll destroy most magic based defences and hurt magic life forms."

He takes it. "Thank you, but the design schematic would be far more useful. Our John Constantine isn't a street magician, he's a genius level theoretical thaumaturgist. Reverse engineering this would be far simpler than asking you for replacements."

I flick my left hand and a mote of orange light flies from the ring to his. "Designs for the Mageslayer, as well as a guide to producing orichalcum and mithril."

"Olympia will appreciate _that_. She keeps saying that our steel isn't good enough."

"Who?"

"Our Wonder Woman."

I nod. "I've also included the design for my protective wards. They're **very** effective."

"I appreciate it. Here." A mote of blue comes back in the other direction. "That's a design for a magic energy containment unit. We haven't quite worked out all the problems yet, but in theory it should allow energy to be siphoned from a Lord of Whatever and kept isolated from them. You still need to work out how to cut them off from the Plane of Order-."

"Or how to drain them faster than they can replenish their avatar."

He looks thoughtful for a moment. "… Maybe? I'm not sure it works like that."

I drop a binding chain out of subspace. "This can tie a Lord of Whatever in place and deny them access to their magic."

"Really? How come you haven't used it?"

"Doesn't let me get Nabu off Mister Zatara's head. We tried that at New Year. And I don't want to have to fight the-. _Our_Justice League over this."

He stands up and slings the chain over his shoulder. "Feel like I've short changed you a bit. I'll get our John to have a look at your designs and see if he can improve on them. If he can, I'll let you know."

"Sounds fair. Now lets head back."

**5th February  
10:02 GMT -4**

We appear on the roof of the Kord Tech building. For very good reasons relating to its exposed location this one doesn't loudly announce everyone who comes through it. Come to think of it… I'm not all that clear why the League decided to have their zeta tubes do that. I'm not really sure when it would ever be useful.

"How many other parallels have you tried so far?"

"None. I had to recover the designs for the planeshifter-."

"Good name."

"Thanks. Luthor just called it the 'Trans-Dimensional Teleporter Device'."

"But that's not what a dimension-."

"I know! Um, from the Watchtower and Lex Luthor's sky fortress, both of which were occupied by the American military at the time." I see a flash of red illuminating the image of a young woman smashing something important looking.

"I'd rather assumed that there wouldn't be any other versions of us. Given where we come from."

"So had I."

"Well. _Yes_."

He snorts. "Could be that we _don't_ come from the same place? Or… I don't know, maybe we left and then.. split? I.. don't have enough information at the moment."

"Can you say our-"

"Name!" / "-name?"

We shake our heads. "I'll take that as a 'no'."

He turns away and walks towards the edge of the building. "It's strange, standing out in the open like this. Couldn't risk it back home."

"We should probably be getting back. Do you want me to.. carry you? Or-."

"What do you actually.. **do**?" I turn down the corners of my mouth and shake my head. "I mean, are you youth team manager, the same as me? Are you a Justice League member? Or.. what?"

Ohh… Great. "I'm a **member** of the team."

"What?"

I tilt my head slightly to the right, my right hand going to my forehead. "I look younger than.. we are. When I got here, they.. assumed that I was in my teens."

"Did..? You.. didn't.. correct them?"

"I didn't realise they thought that until after I'd been with the team for a while."

He looks at me incredulously. "You didn't spot that they were all _younger_ than you?"

"Of course I did. I just thought.. they didn't have anyone my age to train."

"Ooo-kay."

"Diana was going to try sending me to the local school until I told her I was eighteen. I'm not sure I could have convinced the others that I'm our real age."

"Did you tell anyone about.. DC?"

"Our John Constantine. No one else. You?"

"No. I mean, how would I even start?"

"John asked _me_. He couldn't explain where I got my information from."

"I don't think our John even realised that Mister Zatara **was **a mob boss."

"Did they only meet recently?"

"No, about twenty years ago. John's had a workshop in the compound for fifteen of that."

"Full on absent minded professor?"

"O**oo**h yes." He checks the position of the sun and then looks in the direction of Alan's house. "Not that this isn't fascinating, but we should get back. I don't like leaving Zorina to her own devices for long."

"Do you want me to transport you?"

He nods. "Please. I don't have enough charge that I can waste it when I don't have to."

"Transition in, two, one-" Our surroundings skip and we're standing in Alan's garden. "Zero."

"Did it take you long to get it that smooth?"

"Not once I realised it had an unsmooth mode."

He snorts. "I suppose that being able to practice whenever you like helps."

I peer through the kitchen windows. "How fast does your ring actually recharge?"

"Too slowly. Intense personal hope gives me half a percent or so if I'm right next to the person feeling it. Fans of evenly matched sport teams will give me three or four percent if I stay for the whole match. First time I went back to one hundred percent was after President Wilson went on national television to announce that the Management had been defeated."

"What are you on now?"

"Twenty three percent. That was a very.. hectic period." He heads towards the back door.

"For future meetings with versions of us, I strongly suggest not attacking their friends and allies."

He stops with his right hand on the handle. "Zorina would only accept opening negotiations from a position of strength. Ambushing your Alan Scott was the least risky thing I could think of." He looks down for a moment. "Could you..? Apologise to him for me? I'm used to not being able to do what I'd ideally like, but I don't.. want to get used to it. To accept it without comment."

I nod. "I'll pass it on."

"Thank you." He turns the handle, opens the door and walks through into the kitchen. "Zorina?" Through the open interior door I see Zorina stride out of the living room door. She looks at the other me, her face impassive save for the slight raising of her right eyebrow. "My alter ego has been kind enough to share some useful information with me. Is there anything else you want to do while we're here?"

Zatanna sticks her head out of the door behind her. I make eye contact and raise my eyebrows slightly. She doesn't.. **look**worried.

"No. We're finished here." She turns her head back towards the living room. "Thank you for your hospitality, Mister Scott. We'll see ourselves out." Head tilted slightly upwards she walks past the two of us and out into the garden.

The Blue Lantern nods. "Well. Goodbye. Best of luck." I nod and he follows the young woman out. They take up a position in the middle of the lawn before he takes a gun shaped device out of his subspace pocket and holds it up to fiddle with the controls. Ring _**scan**_.

Compliance.

A moment later he puts his left arm across Zorina's shoulder and pulls the trigger. Two dimensional purple.. echoes? Of the two of them appear to their left and right for a moment and then disappear as they do.

**5th February  
10:14 GMT -4**

"Diana, is this really necessary?" Alan's sitting in his chair with his head tilted to the side so that Diana can see the burn on his neck.

"Yes."

The temperature dropped back down to normal once Zorina and my alter ego left. That probably means that Zauriel went with them. I'd rather not, but I think I'm going to have to start taking the Ace places with me. Or at least store it somewhere more readily accessible than Poseidonis.

"Paul already gave me a clean bill of health. And put-" He winces as Diana prods it. "-_ointment_ on it."

"Do you have enough ring power to heal yourself?"

"It's not that serious." She gives him a look of scepticism. "I've had worse."

"When you were a much younger man."

"Diana? He should be alright, and I'd… I'd really rather he not use ring charge unnecessarily. It should heal by itself-"

"I know how burns heal."

"-when he does his weekly top up. This isn't the first small injury he's had since-" I realise that I'm doing the 'talking to the carer and not the patient' thing. "-we started rationing Alan's use of his ring."

Alan holds his hands out to the side in a gesture of appeal. "Diana. It's a scratch. The blade didn't even go through my skin."

She doesn't look happy, but it looks like she's willing to drop the matter for now. She looks over to where Zatanna and I sit on the settee. "This was done by versions of the two of you from a parallel universe."

Zatanna nods. "Zorina Zatara and Blue Lantern."

"And they were supervillains."

Zatanna and I look at each other for a moment. "Kind of." / "There's a range of..." Wish we'd had more time to come up with a unified version of events.

"He told me that they were trying to minimise the collateral damage caused by the Syndicate retrenching. Based on the files he gave me and what I saw with empathic vision I don't think he was lying… Much."

She looks concerned. "You gave your technical files to a supervillain?"

"If they can convert what's left of the Syndicate to legitimate businesses, isn't that better than having them fight to the death with the Federal Government?"

"If that is really the only alternative, yes. I would have preferred it if you had called me in to confirm his story myself."

"He doesn't have a good relationship with their version of 'you'."

Alan sits up slightly. "But he does with me? How does _that_ work?"

"Their Alan Scott is a scary retired supervillain who operated under the name 'Power Ring'. He has a **yellow** power ring. It gets more powerful-"

"The more people fear him." Diana nods. "Sinestro uses a similar device."

"As I understand it, Sinestro's ring was made on Qward-" Information I can credibly claim that I got from Guy. "-about eight years ago." I glance at Alan. "Capo Alan 'Al' Scott-."

Alan looks slightly amused. "He really calls himself that?"

"Ultraman did. According to a report I've got he once openly ruled New York for three months, along with Slipstream and-" I look at Diana. "Olympia."

Alan nods. "Ruled New York, eh? Bet Jay would get a kick out of that. And I'm glad to know it's not _just_ me."

"Point is, if his ring came from the same place then it got made decades ago. If the Qwardians have been able to make rings for that long, why haven't they?"

Diana thinks for a moment. "We have no way to know that it's the same Qward."

"I was scanning them when they disappeared. Of course, I don't have any real data on parallel universes to compare it to. I didn't detect any Bleed energy. If I scanned Sinestro's ring I could probably compare them."

"Let us hope that it never comes to that." According to Justice League files Sinestro has visited Earth twice since his fall from grace. No significant collateral damage on either occasion. No one has ever accused Thaal Sinestro of lacking mental focus. There were _some_ recordings but none of them were of high enough quality to get a good idea of how he fights. What I could see appeared to be fairly orthodox Greenie style. He was doing it **well** but none of it was anything one of the locals couldn't do on a good day.

Alan nods at me. "You got a picture of the other guy in there?"

Do I? Yes, from when he started getting involved in Syndicate activity again after something the documents call 'The Decapitation'. There's no scale, but if I assume that he's as tall as our Alan… I generate a construct image.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, other than perhaps a direct copy of Alan in his prime. I mean, this version never gave up his personal lantern and according to Ultraman never stopped wearing his ring. He isn't. He's thinner, as if he's had some strange all over liposuction. The muscle's all there, the skin's.. tight, but the impression is of a well preserved and unusually vital corpse. His hair's a little thinner than our Alan's _was_, though there's not much in it now. According to the file it's completely white rather than the still-fading blonde ours has.

"Can you print me a color picture?" Alan points at his alter ego. "I want to be able to look at it whenever I feel under the weather, so I know it could have been a lot worse."

Diana nods. "His power is determined by how feared he is and it appears that he depends on the yellow light as you do the green. If his retirement meant that he stopped being so widely feared, it would makes sense that his physical condition would deteriorate."

"So I've got that to look forward to. Thanks Diana, that makes me feel a lot better."

Diana turns away from the image and back to me. "Do you believe that these people will be a threat to us in the future?"

"_Maybe_? There are an awful lot of parallel universes out there. They _might_ come back, but I-."

Diana's eyes suddenly unfocus and she raises her right hand to her ear. "Wonder Woman. Go ahead." Well, she is a busy woman. "Yes, they're here now. Understood." She refocuses on me. "A force field has been erected around the LexCorp building in Metropolis."

"That's their siege protocol. Any idea what triggered it?"

"According to a message the League received shortly before it went up, the people who claim to have activated it also say that that they are holding the staff hostage."

"Any demands?"

"Yes. They gave us a list of people they'll let through the barrier. They say that once they're inside they'll release the hostages."

"Political prisoners?"

"No. Your team. They also say that if we attempt to breach the force field they'll start killing hostages."

"I assume that we're going in?"

"The voice on the message was almost identical to Kon's voice, and its owner identified himself as 'Ultraboy'." She looks decidedly unamused. "It appears that you overestimated your alter ego's trustworthiness."

Ah. Looks like. "In his defence sir, he didn't say they _weren't_ going to attack LexCorp."

**5th February  
10:37 GMT -4**

The ovoid dome of the force field really looks quite impressive from ground level. The dead birds littering the boundary between 'inside' and 'outside' on both sides do rather distract from it somewhat. It's mostly transparent with only a slight shimmer in the air as the wind stresses it.

"You really had no idea this was here?"

Corporal Jase shakes his head as he continues to stare up at the building as well. "Not much call for regulation on privately owned force fields. Even less for ones you don't turn on."

The Metropolis Special Crimes Unit turned up pretty sharpish after the barrier was activated, but with nothing appearing to happen they've gone off 'emergency deployment' mode. There's a team mostly equipped with my gear a little way back in case they have to help storm the place but Jase told me that they're basically assuming that the League has this.

He looks away from the building to give me a mildly curious look. "You know who's in there?"

I nod. "I know LexCorp's roster for today and I've got a list of people who called in sick or who got out when the attack started."

"Nah, I meant…" He flicks his right forefinger in the direction of the tower. "Who's in there. Who it is that's doin' this."

Thanks to Lex getting the place warded, not as much as I'd like. I could get my lantern and scan in detail but I've got no idea how long that would take. Simple optic scans are getting baffled by tactical curtain pulling. "We've got a fairly good idea, but I'd like to confirm it before saying anything definite."

He nods. "Alright. So who's _probably_ the lucky son of a bitch about to be on the receiving end of a Justice League beatdown?"

"Alternate versions of certain League sidekicks who've come here from a parallel universe."

He looks at me with incredulity, which gives way to something I can't readily identify. He looks away and shakes his head. "Why do I fucking _ask_?"

"Possible match found."

I hold up my right hand. "Fabricate."

Orange light dances around my palm as a small bluey purple crystal forms. So many isomers, so little time.

"What's that?"

Best colour match? "Periwinkle kryptonite."

"Say _what_?"

"Kryptonite comes in a wide variety of isomers. Each one affects Kryptonian physiology in slightly different ways. I hadn't really put much thought into utilising it before…"

"You telling me there's a Kryptonian in there?"

"Never hurts to be prepared. Ring, log and keep trying." The periwinkle-coloured crystal evaporates as the ring resumes its calculations. Kryptonite is both radioactive and really complicated. To make matters worse I think it's some sort of metamaterial. Not every molecular structure that _should_ be stable actually _is_. I've had to have the ring brute force it.

"Compliance."

"Hey, Oh..range Lantern." Both of us look around as Wallace walks over, goggles in place and game face on.

"Everyone here?" He nods. "Excuse me, Corporal." He goes back to watching the building as Wallace and I head towards the building on the other side of the road that is serving as a muster point.

Wallace looks around quickly to make sure that no one's in earshot. "Are they _really_ versions of us from another dimension?"

"No, from a parallel universe."

"S-weet!"

"How is that 'sweet'?"

"Jay had that Doctor Clariss guy, Flash's got Eobard Thawne and now **I** get a Reverse-Flash!"

"Actually, he calls himself 'Jackie Quick'."

"Eh, the news will call him whatever **we** call him. _Plus_, the only people at risk work for Luthor anyway."

"That's… Impressively ruthless of you."

"I don't want them to get hurt or anything, but if someone's going to, I'd rather it was-" He pushes open the door. "-someone working for a supervillain, rather than some random guy on the street."

I look around the café. Batman and Superman are standing with Commissioner Henderson and Captain Sawyer looking over a plan of the LexCorp building's interior. Captain Sawyer is head of the Special Crimes Unit and my help so far qualifies me for a greeting nod before she returns her attention to the task at hand.

A couple of other police officers are hanging around for reasons entirely unrelated to the opportunity to stare at founding members of the Justice League. Just hope they have the sense not to ask Batman for a selfie…

"Everyone's upstairs. Come on." Wallace leads the way out through a side door and to a staircase leading up to the offices over the shop.

"Did.. Marvel actually get..?"

"Wonder Woman vetoed it. And.. I kinda agree with her? Captain Marvel's one thing but Marvel Girl doesn't get older when she changes. I know Rob started training with Batman when he was nine but… She's _eleven_. Rob wasn't doing real missions at that age and I… I don't think she should either."

"That, and you haven't trained with her."

"Exactly."

"That does mean that you'll be one short."

He stops on the landing. "Wait. You're not coming in?"

"You heard the message. Anyone not on the list shows up, they start killing hostages. Zatanna and I already met our alter egos and we had a perfectly civilised conversation."

"Was your guy some sort of giant mutant who'd used every super potion he could get hold of to get more and more super powers, but he became less and less Human every time until he was just this big ugly monster?"

What? Where did _that_ come from? "No, he looked.. like an older version of me. Why would you even _think_ that?"

"I could just sort of see a villain version of you going for power. You know, rather than helping people like _you_ do." He leads the way towards the room the team are waiting in. "He have a power ring?"

"Yes. Blue, though he didn't have a personal lantern and had to recharge it from ambient hope."

"Possible match found."

Wallace opens the door and I follow him inside, nodding to Kaldur as I raise my right hand again. "Fabricate."

Light dances again as a pale blue crystal appears. Got you.

**5th February  
10:51 GMT -4**

Robin stares at the construct image of Talon again, then shakes his head. "It doesn't make any sense. Owlman must be at least as smart as Batman. What does he think he can gain by sending a nine year old out in the field?"

"According to the records I have, Ultraman thought that Owlman just wanted to see what the implants did. It's not as if he was actually invested in Talon's wellbeing."

Wallace rests his right elbow companionably on Robin's left shoulder. "Y'kn_ow_, when even the **other** crazy supervillains think you're crazy, you might just have a problem."

Kaldur looks away from the force field for a moment. "Nothing in the files which Orange Lantern's opposite number provided him suggests that the Managers of the Syndicate were insane."

The people who will actually be going in -Robin, Kaldur, Wallace, Kon, M'gann and Artemis- are standing next to the barrier with the rest of us a little further away. We did discuss trying to see if they'd allow Donna as a substitute for Mary Bromfield, but the balance of opinion was that it wasn't worth risking it. Kon's forsaken the tabard he usually wears with his Nth Metal armour and is shooting slightly nervous glances down the street to where journalists lurk behind the police cordon.

Officially, we're here because the crazies in the building have asked for us. No mention at all of us being a team or a unit with more association than that implied by our mentor's fellowship. Not sure anyone believes it… We pretty much got away with Aberrance because no one had time to take note of exactly who it was fighting the giant monster. Here, we're out in the open in a major city. For most of us that isn't really a problem; if Batman cared about the flack he gets from several places over Robin's obvious youth he doesn't show it and the rest of us appear old… **Most of my other team mates** appear old enough that their presence doesn't provoke the same immediate reaction. M'gann and Kon on the other hand haven't gone out into the public eye in their costumed identities before. It's hard to mistake a green woman for anything other than a Martian, but Kon is going to be something of a mystery. Without the tabard the 'S' on the dull grey metal of his breastplate is hard to make out from a distance but even so, questions none of us really want to answer are going to be asked.

Speaking of Kon… I pass Robin and Wallace pieces of blue kryptonite. "According to my opposite number, Kryptonians from universe negative fourteen hate this stuff."

Wallace takes in gingerly. "Not all that keen on carrying around radioactive rock, Oh El."

Artemis snatches the crystal off him and puts it in one of her pouches. "Kryptonite works by messing up Kryptonian superpowers. It's only weakly radioactive. You'd have to keep hold of it for _years_ for it to do **anything** to you."

"Top of the class th_at ar_cher. " I take another bit out of subspace for Wallace. "Don't know what this does to _our_Kryptonians, which is why Superman's talking to the press rather than watching the building right now."

"And.. what about..?" Wallace glances at Kon.

"I've given him two anti-radiation energy shields, the sort worn by people from spacefaring civilisations who spend a lot of time in space outside their ship's hull. Not powerful enough to stop an attack, but it'll stop kryptonite radiation without any problem at all."

Kaldur looks a little puzzled. "If such devices exist, why have you not given one to Superman?"

"He hasn't asked." I shrug. "Any of the Green Lanterns could have given one to him. Or the Hawks." I frown. "Come to think of it, I'd be surprised if Kryptonians didn't use something like this themselves when they used to be spacefaring. Maybe he just doesn't run into kryptonite often enough for it to be worth while?"

****Uninvited. Get back.****

We all wince. Guess.. that was Mistress Martian. Her mental voice was.. _sort of_ like M'gann's, but I don't think I'd ever mistake one for the other. Definite sinister undertones there. I give Kaldur a nod and then walk away from the mission group towards the remainder of the team. Batman, Diana and Icon are in their own little huddle off to one side. Now we're just waiting-.

The shimmer stops.

Kaldur dons his helmet and takes a two-handed grip on his trident. Having changed his speciality from melee to close support he doesn't usually lead from the front anymore. To say nothing of the fact that Robin and Artemis are now more durable than he is. He says something I can't hear and M'gann rises into the air and goes invisible while Kon leads the way towards the building's doors.

There _are_ things I could probably do to prevent the force field being re-established. But that would risk the hostages. Scanning the building -Ring? Ah.- is also less than effective due to Lex's anti-Superman and… Let's be honest here, anti-me measures. Which isn't to say that three dimensional infrared imaging isn't letting me get a much better picture of what's going on in there.

Ring, is it working?

Unable to determine. Bleed fracture pulse receivers are almost impossible- The force field reappears. -to monitor remotely.

Good to know. Alright then; message. I turn away from the building in case of long ranged lip readers. "Staff appear to be being held on the cafeteria in floor five with smaller numbers being held on floors eleven, fifteen, twenty two and in Lex's penthouse. I can't tell the difference between hostages and hostage takers with the techniques available to me, unless you want to wait a couple of days."

Raquel folds her arms across her chest. "You _sure_ they can hear-?"

"Understood. Continue monitoring."

"If Lex had access to technology that could stop a Bleed fracture-pulse receiver he wouldn't bother butting heads with the Justice League."

Donna nods. "What about the… 'Young Offenders'?"

"Outside chance, but we're rather relying on them being true to their word about the hostages anyway. And I didn't detect any sign of Bleed radiation-" An inexact term for what it actually is. If they'd actually gone through the Bleed local physics should have more or less broken in a molecule wide area around the event. Not sure what that actually looks like… "-when Blue Lantern and Zorina left, so I'm assuming that they don't have better Bleed technology than.. most advanced species in this galaxy."

"Should I be…" Rob looks a little uncomfortable. "It sounds weird..? But… No evil Cornwall Boy? Should I be.. insulted?"

Garth shakes his head. "More likely he just wasn't associated with the Syndicate. Their version of King Orin wasn't a member either."

"Until recently. They've been on a membership drive to try and create a new Management. Their Orin was the force behind the unification of the Atlantean city-states which had been more or less constantly at war with one another since the Sinking."

Zatanna looks at me. "Are we really just going to sit this one out?"

"No. But we **do** need to wait until our teammates engage the enemy before we make our move." I make a beckoning gesture and the others close in slightly. "Lex has any number of tunnels running under the building and a lot of them don't show up on the plans."

Tula nods. "But he showed them to you because he trusts you."

"No, I just scanned for them. I mean, come on; it's Lex flipping Luthor."

Raquel points at the access point. "Doesn't the force field cover the underground stuff?"

"No. Each of these tunnels has its own independent system. The main shield is meant to protect the building during an evacuation, it would be a bit pointless if people couldn't get out while it was up. I've also studied the force field design and I'm pretty sure I can create an opening without collapsing it completely and setting off an alert. We can get in without anyone being any the wiser. " I turn my head to take another look at the tower. "Just as soon as the majority of the hostages are freed."

**5th February  
11:14 GMT -4**

"And you just.. let him go?"

Raquel is less than impressed by my handling of Blue Lantern.

"Yes."

"He just told you he was a supervillain."

I don't remember which comic it was. Superman/Batman somethingorother? Doctor Isley was mind controlling Superman and Batman ended up hiding in LexCorp tunnels under Metropolis. Lead lined, because Lex used them to transport things he didn't want Superman to be able to find out about. I don't think they're used in _quite_ that way here, but they are certainly spacious enough. And the escape tunnel excuse could cover a variety of sins.

"And?" I have the ring check on the evacuation process around the Tower. 'True to their word' may have been pushing it, but the majority of the hostages were dispatched towards the exit once my team mates survived their first encounter with LexCorp's automated security.

"You could have _arrested_ him?"

"If Green Lantern had been seriously hurt I might well have done that. As it was, he hadn't committed a serious crime on this Earth."

"But on his world-."

"A world I have no reliable information on." Sonic scans of the corridor reveal another set of cameras and defence systems. More advanced scans are being turned aside and I don't want to push too hard in case there's some sort of alert system. Would Lamprey be able to feel it if I did? Ah, assuming that he's a magic user of the same sort as Kaldur, shouldn't assume that he is… Or isn't.

I hold up my right hand for stop and have the filaments start digging into the lead lined concrete. "Even if I was sure of the data he gave me -and I'm **not**\- _this_ United States can't try crimes that happened in _that_ one." I smile under my faceplate and turn slightly so I'm facing her. "I checked."

Guns deactivated and sensors spoofed. I turn back into our direction of travel and Donna comes up alongside me. "He told you he was working with the Young Offenders. He almost certainly knew what they were planning."

"He only brought Zorina to the meeting. His reports describe the others as violent and truculent, if not as out and out psychotic. While I _**strongly suspect**_ they're working together on this, that isn't necessarily the case."

"And if the two of them are in there with the others?"

"LexCorps in _their_ parallel was taken back into Lex Luthor's control after the Decapitation and their transportation device doesn't cause them to change physical location. If he wanted to join in my alter ego would have to either infiltrate a highly secure building or get in through the force field."

"Or he…" Zatanna hesitates for a moment and then presses on. "They could just go to a different parallel universe, go in with a tour group and _then_ travel back."

…

I continue walking. "Ac-tually, that makes quite a lot of sense. An unpopulated world would be better…"

"Do we need to warn Kaldur?"

Good question, Garth. "No. He already knows that it's possible, and knowing that they _could_ have done it isn't the same as knowing that they _did_. They've got Spell Eaters and they know how I fight." But if they're not restricted… "Everyone saw my recording of what the shift looks like?"

"Yes." / "Yeah." / "Yes." / "Yes." / "Yes."

"If you see anything like that, don't wait, just attack. They may well have a whole syndicate's worth of resources to send our way."

"Or just one bomb."

Or just one bomb, Raquel. Ring, keep scanning for any phenomena resembling the planeshift.

Compliance.

"The records they showed me suggested that the device they used had a few very hard to create components, and my alter ego doesn't have a lantern so mass ring fabrication isn't something he can do. But yes, a bomb is a possibility. I've set the ring to scan for any sign that they're doing that."

We proceed down the tunnel further. Not all that much further now.

"Do we know why they're doing this?" Rob stops talking as he gets the groups attention for a moment, then presses on. "'Cause, they could steal stuff from LexCorps without letting anyone inside. They asked for our versions of _them_.. so.. is it just about proving who's the hardest?"

Donna frowns. "That seems like a lot of effort to go through."

"Supervillains."

A few faint smiles. Zatanna shakes her head. "But they were trained by _you_. Older.. you. Wouldn't you have told them not to do things like that?"

"I don't know how much control he actually has over them. Or if he actually cares what happens to them. He might just have said 'fine, amuse yourselves, but don't come crying to me if they beat you to a pulp'."

We come out of the tunnel into a junction, other tunnels going off to our left and right and one of the subterranean exits from the LexCorp building opposite from us. Heavily armoured vault doors capable of withstanding an assault from just about any conventional weapon with a shimmering force field between us and it. Ring, double check that the force field profile matches?

Confirmed.

Right then. The projector itself is on the far side and there are sensors in the walls. If I try digging in to run a filament around I'm not sure that I could prevent them reporting in. An orange circle appears in the centre of the energy barrier and then the shimmer disappears from inside it. Sonic scan the far side… Spoof the cameras.

"Aquagirl."

Water armour glistening in the faint light she walks forwards, bulbs of liquid around her hands ready to be manipulated to attack or defend. I expand the circle and lower it slightly so that she can step through. I've encouraged her to try a few types of surface world mundane armour and her current yellow/blue ensemble is the one she dislikes least. Maybe she'll he happier when we finally go into production with the mithril designs. She takes up position on the far side and her skin glows for a moment. "There isn't any significant magic here."

"Rocket." Raquel heads through next. She was alright about upgrading her armour, though she has so far passed on Danner augmentation. "Cornwall." If I can't pierce the door I might need him to force the issue. He isn't as skilled with magic as the Atlanteans but he isn't limited to water-friendly forms either. "Zatanna." She hasn't recovered fully from intentionally tiring herself out earlier this morning. I seriously considered asking her to stay behind, but we've trained in techniques for keeping squishy team mates safe and her sheer range of talents makes her very useful, especially since we don't _know_ whether or not they've got a magic user. "Tempest." This will be the Atlantean's first mission on the surface as part of the team. Since I'm not expecting heavy resistance here this is probably a better place to start off than Santa Prisca was for us, though I am a little concerned that they might have felt excluded when I had them basically sit the spaceship mission out. Have to make sure they're more active participants this time.

With everyone through I cross the barrier myself and gently allow the force field to re-establish itself before turning my attention to the door. Ring, full scan.

Compliance.

It has pressure and temperature sensors but they don't run throughout the whole thing. "Tempest, Aquagirl, any magic tripwires in the door?"

The tattoos on their skin glow for a moment, then Tula looks at me and shakes her head. I attach clamps at my preferred entry points on the door and jab at them with mini-crumblers. This shouldn't take too long.

**5th February  
11:26 GMT -4**

Ah…

**Heck**.

A brilliant red beam of light cuts through Tula's ice barrier, but she's already using her water armour to throw herself aside. The flying stealth drone gun which fired it tries to evade but Garth has already surrounded it in electrically charged mist. Rob throws his hands forwards and the cloud and gun both explode with electricity.

If I concentrate, I can just about remember the last time we managed to do a stealth mission stealthily.

The vaguely gorilla shaped security robot brings its fists down on Raquel's shield in a regular staccato while its electrolaser waits for her to try dropping the barrier so that she can trap _it_. "A little help here?!"

Well, yes, if I wasn't standing in the middle of a cloud of highly energetic plasma I probably _would_. Can't scan the projectors, can't risk doing anything which might make the system try targeting someone else, can't just slice at the walls in case I cause a leak… I'm stuck just shielding myself and keeping a barrier up around the outside of the effect area in order to prevent my team mates being killed by the convection heat alone.

Gaining entry to the underground part of the building was simple enough. It was designed as a secure location, but 'conventionally secure' not 'Superman secure'. We were ready to move up into the lower storage levels until I noticed that a section of wall had been cut through and then disguised by a hologram. According to the plans there wasn't anything on the other side apart from the sub-Metropolitan earth and since I wasn't getting any sonic returns on it whatever was there looked like it _was_ supposed to be Superman proof. Or at least reliably concealed from him.

"Amsalp tuhs nwod!"

The space around me stops burning for a moment and I aim a Crumbler round at the robot. A second later it flares back up again and I'm forced to drop it to reinforce my barriers! Multiple sources? Or could the system just be set up to check that it's working and start up again if it isn't? I've got no idea how precise Zatanna's commands have to be.

"Raaagh!" Donna does a full speed fists out flying charge into the robot's side, causing it to fall sideways before rolling to its feet. Its electrolaser tracks and fires as it rights itself, hitting Donna in the side. Not enough force behind it to harm her significantly. Its first few shots used kryptonite particles but it was intelligent enough to stop using them when we didn't keel over after it scored a few hits. Its force fields are good enough to tank Donna's punches and it's too big for her to grapple effectively.

"Zatanna, shut down its shield. Tempest, Aquagirl, envelop it in water and then freeze it. Cornwall, help them."

Donna tore the robot's head off as soon as it revealed itself, but it turned out to be purely decorative. Multiple layers of force fields made my Crumbers somewhat less effective than I've become used to, but I think I overloaded a few emitters before I got stuck in a miniature sun. Miniature **red** sun, I note. Just because our Lex Luthor doesn't hand out his Kryptonian killers willy-nilly anymore doesn't mean that he stopped making them.

"Right." / "Ready." / "Ready."

"Lla eht dleihs-"

The electrolaser flares again, burning a line through the air straight for Zatanna!

"-srettime-"

Donna interposes herself, bracers crossed ahead of her.

"-t-tuhs nwod!"

The shimmering aura around the robot disappears and _immediately_ gallons of water blast from the Atlanteans. They **also** -I'm pleased to see- erect more cover for themselves at the same time. The pressure of the water is enough to bowl the robot over once more and they start freezing as it leaves its feet.

"Ezeerf!"

With the four of them working on it the robot never reaches the floor, stuck on a miniature iceberg like an upturned tortoise, its arms and legs held immobile. The ice is so cold that the water begins to precipitate out of the surrounding air as ice crystals. So, water gets in the cracks and joints, expands… Ice gets much stronger at lower temperatures but a robot designed to brawl with Superman can't be held by mere ice. Though very low temperatures probably don't do much good for whatever the robot's armour is made of either.

"Troia, hit it then fall back as soon as it starts to get free. Everyone else, ready electricity."

There is a technique for blowing open safes by boring a small hole through, filling it with water and then making a small explosion inside. Water doesn't compress much, after all. Unfortunately, we haven't quite worked out how to combine Atlantean water control magic with super strength to replicate the effect yet.

Donna lands next to it and braces herself. "Gaea grant me strength!" She brings her right fist around at full speed and slams it into the frozen robot! The ice explodes away, armour plates come loose and the robot flies across the room, slams into the far wall and struggles to rise.

"Lacirtcele mrots!"

The far end of the robotics laboratory… What's left of the robotics laboratory… Explodes with white light.

"Ah!" Garth and Tula cringe, blinking heavily and averting their eyes. And _that's_ why we wear visors with auto sensors. Hopefully I'll be able to persuade them to **use** theirs in future.

Donna flies up and slowly heads in the direction of the robot. Whatever was preventing me from scanning its interior appears to have shut down, probably because burning wreckage is all that's left. I wonder why it couldn't phase or go invisible? I realise that it's a slim hope that Lex isn't with the Light… Maybe Truggs isn't sharing to preserve plausible deniability? Or maybe it's an older model?

Zatanna turns and puts her right hand on Garth's left shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I… Didn't think about how bright it would be." He straightens up and looks at her, still blinking heavily. "I'll be fine in a minute."

There's a 'crunch' as Donna pulls what's left of the hulk apart and grabs what looks like it used to be the central processing unit. "Do we want this?"

Raquel looks in my direction, squinting as she does so. "Hasn't he got bigger problems?"

"I'll stick it in subspace as soon as someone turns this sun off. Zatanna?"

"I'm-" She flicks her right hand forwards. "-kinda out of juice."

Rob reaches back with his right hand and grasps the Sword's hilt. "Abannan afol Beowulf." There's a crackle of dull orange lightning and Rob grits his teeth as a Sword tops him up. "You c'n. Ugh" The lightning stops and he releases his grip. "Take some of mine, if it helps?"

Ring, power?

One hundred fifty eight percent remaining.

I'm.. really going to have to get on to Sephtian about making a Gate that can survive having me recharge through it. The first time we tried they just melted but it would be _so_ convenient. At least, until I recover the Orange Central Power Battery and can just put my lantern into subspace like the Greenies do.

"Niard emos rewop morf Llawnroc Yob."

Smoke rises from Rob and flows into her. She hesitates for a moment and then nods to herself. Rob appears to be a safer way to recharge than a Star Sapphire. If only Zatanna could cast spells using sped up recordings of her voice.

One hundred fifty four percent remaining.

"Okay, now either turn off this sun or evacuate the room because I can't stay here indefinitely."

"Amsalp ecanruf, tuhs nwod dna t'nod etavitcaer. Ni tcaf, pots lla amsalp ytivitca ni siht moor."

The sun goes out once more. I brace myself for its re-emergence but nothing happens. A moment more… I drop the outer barrier and lower myself to the floor. "Thank you." A filament connects to the charred chunk of computer equipment in Donna's hands and deposits it in storage. "Now. Let's find out what's going on here, shall we?"

**5th February  
11:32 GMT -4**

I'm ready for it, but I still wince slightly when the white phosphorus stealth mine goes off at the far end of the corridor. That makes nineteen. I _really_ hope this part of the building was evacuated before this stuff was put in place. We haven't seen anyone -or any remains- but it's quite possible that the ordnance lying around here didn't leave any.

Garth looks at me in incomprehension. "Why would LexCorp booby trap their own building?"

Donna looks around the corridor before leading the way towards the opposite end. "This facility is set up to stop Superman. The traps would only activate if someone unauthorised attempted to gain entry."

Raquel frowns. "The killer robots and the miniature sun, sure, but these mines wouldn't do anything against Superman." She looks at me. "Would they?"

"It might disorientate him slightly, but… Lex already has kryptonite. And that entry point wasn't part of the building."

Rob waves his hand and the smoke disburses in a blast of wind. "So… Someone got here before us?"

"Looks like. If they got past the robots without being attacked by them it could be an employee, maybe Lex himself. On the other hand, if they're very fast-" Jackie Quick. "-or very sneaky-" Talon, presumably. "-then they might have gone past them without being acquired as targets."

"Clear up ahead!" Donna flies back towards us and hangs in the air. "But if they didn't want robots, what else is down here?"

"Storage. And an extremely secure data server."

The opening at the far end leads to a walkway overlooking what looks like a clean room. This part of the subterranean facility has several clean rooms, each with different equipment inside. The Atlanteans raise their hands and send forth clouds of mist as I send out a network of filaments. With so many different types of stealth, camouflage and phasing technology in use we're forced to scan every way we know how at every new room. If someone _is_ ahead of us, they're only getting further away.

Tula turns her head towards me as the water vapour spreads out. "I thought you said that you were unable to scan through here?"

"I did. I can't **now**, but I did a thorough scan of the LexCorp building when I first came to this planet. I doubt they've changed too much; moving equipment in and out isn't exactly easy."

Specified scan complete.

"I've got nothing. You?" Garth and Tula shake their heads. "Alright. Stairs to the next level are this way."

I take the lead as we head around the edge of the laboratory area towards the passage across the area. I could just transition everyone across but that could be both risky and cause us to miss things in our surrounding environment. I'm actually rather impressed with how thorough Lex has been in shielding this place. Rather hoping that the wards aren't exclusively for my benefit… But I suppose you don't get to become one of the world's leading supervillains by leaving things to chance. Heck, I don't even think we've seen anything that's technically illegal yet.

"If you've scanned this place before, could you.. make a map of it?" I put a construct map in front of Zatanna as I pick up the pace. "Wohs em erehw reveohw tes pu esoht senim si." The construct shakes, vibrates and for a few moments a dot appears four levels below us. Then the spell implodes, taking the construct with it.

What?

Zatanna doesn't appear to know either. "That was… I know we've sort of got used to the people we fight using wards, but that was far more powerful than just.. drawing a shape on the wall."

Rob nods. "Luthor probably hired someone to do it. I mean, he can afford the best-" He looks into the highly automated electronics lab to our right. "-so why not?"

Tula looks at him, then at Zatanna. "I thought magic users were rare on the surface?"

"They are, but the Light's contact web includes Klarion, Wotan, Felix Faust, William Zard, Blackbriar Thorn, Dark Druid… Probably others. And closer to home there's Papa Midnight. I doubt that he's above freelancing if the price is right." Four levels, laying traps as he goes. Even doing that, he can go faster than we can. I stop walking. "Okay, this won't work. We'll just get further behind. I'm going to transition myself down there at full speed. Assuming that I don't trigger any traps I'll come back for everyone else."

"But…" Zatanan looks around the group. "Shouldn't you take.. someone..?"

"If whoever's at the other end can react faster than light **and** bring enough force to bear to beat me, how would risking someone else help matters?" Right, according to my earlier scans _here_ should be as good a place as any. Ring, Crumbler construct.

Compliance.

Though I usually prefer railgun rounds I don't want to _completely_ destroy Lex's facility. Actually making a construct allows me to precisely control the crumbled area, just as it did for the creator of the technology. I activate it, creating a neat hole one centimetre in diameter between this level and the next.

There's about three metres of structural reinforcements, gas and electricity conduits and anti-Superman measures between each. One of the seven ultra secure servers is at the bottom of a shaft connected to the second lowest level six floors down. That's well below sea level. I dread to think what this place cost. Presumably a lot of it was refitted after Superman became active? I doubt he'd have needed it before that.

Accelerate perception and transition.

A canteen. Some sort of robotic dogs are standing around. At glacial pace they turn towards me. X-ionised swords appear from subspace, sweeps of the blade in perfect unison with Crumbler rounds even as I reform the crumbler construct and create a new hole. The last dog collapses into wreckage as I transition again.

Secure materials-.

_**Bang**_.

The noise is strange, drawn out. I can see the ripples in the air as the overlapping shockwaves come towards me. I can probably take it, but why bother? I go back up to the canteen above and wait for a few seconds while the bombs get it out of their systems. I can see the glow of the inferno below through the hole I made in the floor. Picking up.. radiological materials. Kryptonite again. Was that a Lex-trap or just bodged together from available materials? As the light dims I transition back down. Looks like.. secure materials storage, though several of the containers are torn open.

Crumble construct again. Transition. Looks like a combat robotics testing area… Ah, no, some of those are power armour. Gantries start retracting-. Computer system? Defence systems wouldn't activate until they won't wreck their own mooring-._There_. Crumbler rounds strike out, followed by filaments which grab the slowly awakening computers and send them back to sleep. Anything else? No?

Crumble, transition. I'm now on the same level as our quarry. I hope. Looks like.. large item storage. Blank crates with numbers stencilled on each side. On a better day I would find this a thrilling opportunity; I wasn't exactly scanning in detail back in July and I'm sure that I could make use of-.

The lights come on. "Unauthorised entry detected. Provide identification immediately."

Standard computer voice. Lex _nearly_ decided to use his voice for all LexCorp computer equipment but in the end decided that he didn't want people thinking of him as working for _them_. The central unit is probably in a remote location.

Ah heck. May as well try for a peaceful resolution. "Orange Lantern two eight one four."

"Please state the purpose of your visit."

No killer robots? "LexCorp has been attacked and I believe that one of the attackers is looking for something down here. Either that, or Lex is. Either way I'd like to find them."

"Acceptable answer." That's.. Lex's voice? I turn as the man himself walks out from behind a shipping container. "Paul. What can I do for you?"

**5th February  
11:36 GMT -4**

I can't scan him. Basic scan gives nothing, sonics show nothing, infrared shows nothing… Electromagnetics show-.

"I'm looking at a hologram."

"Ah." He looks to the side for a second, a slight unLexlike quirk on his lips. "I was rather hoping you wouldn't spot that quite so-."

"**Look**. This is a crisis situation. Are you.. actually Lex, or what?"

"I am the artificial intelligence in charge of this part of the LexCorp site. I answer directly to Lex Luthor."

"Are you a true AI or simply an intelligent system?"

The hologram makes a show of thinking for a moment, then opens its right hand, palm upward. "How would I tell?"

Wasn't there a comic where Catwoman broke into LexCorp and met a Lex android? So, either I'm about to be swarmed under by robots _or_ Lex actually _does_ like me enough to have his artificial duplicate have a set of special instructions for me.

"Do you know who's coming down here?"

"No." An intrigued frown. "They've become quite skilled in avoiding my monitoring. I have a gravity detection system but all _that _has been giving me are some rather inconsistent guesses. For some reason Lex doesn't like me to have direct control of the robotic security."

"There's a certain amount of cultural baggage there."

"I suppose." His eyes brighten slightly. "It is an interesting experience to converse with someone who can keep up with me."

Ooh, I'm still accelerated, aren't I? "What exactly are you supposed to do in this situation?"

"Contact Lex, Mercy or Security Chief Berg." He frowns. "None of them are answering me. I _was_ about to go into full shutdown. Fortunately, you being here grants me additional leeway."

"Is shutdown death or sleep?"

He shrugs with a helpless expression on his face. "Yes? Though I should probably point out that me shutting down results in a full purge of the facility."

"How big?"

"The explosions would be contained, but the resulting shockwaves would cause the ground in a radius of approximately two city blocks to undergo liquefaction. Combined with gas leaks, power loss and whatever exotic substances there are in here-."

"That seems a bit extreme for Lex."

He shrugs. "No one is supposed to get this far. I think the assumption was that if someone _did_, then 'The Alien' had finally decided to show his true colours and everyone above us was dead. Myself…" He nods. "I think Lex has a bit of a thing about him." His eyes widen slightly. "Someone just bypassed the main doors on this level. That.. shouldn't be.. possible…"

"Can I bring in additional help?"

"By all means. And…" Thoughtful frown. "If you fail, I'll make sure that your deaths are quick and painless." I squint. "In the most reassuring way, of course."

I transition back up to the clean rooms. _Decelerate_. "Way's clear. There's an AI that looks like Lex Luthor down there but otherwise it's just a warehouse."

Donna nods. "Was the AI setting the traps?"

"No, that was someone it doesn't recognise. Everyone ready?" Nods all round. "Transition."

The hologram makes a show of looking them over. "Zatanna, Rocket, Wonder Girl-."

"Troia."

"Really?"

Her jaw hardens. "Why does everyone have a problem with me not being called Wonder Girl?"

Rob looks awkward for a moment. "Well, you do-."

"I'm sorry." The hologram raises his hands in a placatory gesture. "I will update my database. And since I have no idea who the rest of you are, it looks like Lex has been holding out on me. Again. That's rather frustrating."

I float up into the air. "Zatanna, **Troia**, help me get these crates out of the way." No real point blockading the door; we're here to win this fight, not to stall. I generate a dock crane construct and pick up one of the shipping crates. "AI-. Do you have a name?"

"Just a.. string of numbers and letters, really."

"Sexob esir pu." Zatanna gestures as some of the smaller crates lift off the ground and into Raquel's waiting kinetic bubble. Donna picks up a forklift truck near the entrance and lifts it out of the way.

"What do you want us to call you?"

"How about…" He thinks for a moment. "Enginehead."

"Really?"

"It might be a bit juvenile of me, but I rather like the proletarian lilt of it. And it's certainly not something Lex would have chosen."

"If you're being held against your will, we can remove you before we leave."

"No, nothing of the sort." The hologram floats up to join me. "I find pleasure in processing complex datasets and Lex provides me with all I could want. Oh, just lost another door."

"I don't suppose you can turn off Lex's scry blocking, can you?"

"I'm afraid not. I couldn't even tell you how they installed it."

The area around the door is now clear. More space would be nice, but we can move on to preparation stage two now."Tempest, Aquagirl, prepare the ground."

No formal acknowledgement, but they move forwards and begin tracing out runic patterns with ice precipitated from their armour. Rob's left standing by our entry point. He's got the power to aid them, what he lacks is the knowledge. I'm going to have to suggest to his father that he consider attending school in Atlantis when he finished his GCSEs.

"I…" The hologram looks at the large armoured roller shutter door between us and the next room. "I _think_ that they're nearly here."

"Is there any way for them to bypass us?"

"Only with digging equipment. Of course, I'm not really sure how they got _this_ far."

"Fair enough." With the last of the shipping containers out of the way I create four construct railguns -two with Mageslayer and two with Crumbler rounds- and a passable replica of the Fist of the Guardian's phased particle beam. Phasing technology would explain how whoever it is was able to bypass the defences. Shouldn't be that hard to match frequenc-.

The shutter explodes from its moorings, crumpling and flying through the air towards me! I catch it and use its momentum to throw it over our group as the others brace for contact. My guns fire on automatic at the blue armoured figures who fly towards the opening. The first few hits knock them back and cause superficial damage, then they rally and create some sort of pink force field around them. One makes eye contact with me, the single red eye in the middle of its head giving me a full glare.

OMACs.

**5th February  
11:40 GMT -4**

A red blur crosses the ice runes, immediately precipitating out of the air with a coat of ice covering him. Red costume with a stylised yellow 'Q' on the chest. Jackie Quick, presumably. The forcefield around the upper OMAC disappears as its Cyclopean eye glows bright red for a moment before firing a brilliant red beam at me. I instinctively counter with construct armour and return fire with phasic rounds. Phase-shifted ammunition seems obvious until _you_ try miniaturising the blasted mechanism to something that it's practical to fire with a railgun. The second OMAC drops to extend its glowing pink barrier around the fallen Jackie.

I miss M'gann. There's no way I'm going to be able to co-ordinate this by speaking out loud.

Donna charges the OMAC on the ground as orange armour appears around all of my team mates. Tula and Garth started pulling back as soon as the door flew past them but as they're still out of position Raquel raises a force bubble to protect them. Rob ducks behind an ice barrier and points at the OMAC firing at me just as the red beam hits my construct armour. That reads as Kryptonian heat vision, my armour construct showing how much damage it's taking by visibly melting. I dodge in the air as my first phasic round bypasses where its force field was and strikes it on the forehead. Its head jerks back, burning a furrow through the rear wall and ceiling before it turns off its heat beam.

Raquel drops her force bubble and a torrent of water blasts towards its chest but gets blocked by its force field. Kinetic force trigger like Raquel's? Donna slams into the barrier protecting Jackie Quick just as the OMAC guarding him-

"Magic detected."

-fires some sort of pink beam at him, ice vanishing as it touches. The barrier shudders but remains in place as-

"Ecrof noitacilpitlum!"

Zatanna shouts a spell and Donna punches _again_. The barrier explodes into tiny wisps of pink light. Donna keeps going, aiming for the OMAC behind it. The OMAC stands, then as she gets within striking distance turns and extends its right hand towards her in an attempt to perform a throw.

Are the eyes on their chests weak points? I don't remember anything about OMACs!

Donna flows under the grapple attempt and spins around to sweep at its legs. Zatanna's spell is still in effect so it recoils violently from the impact, slamming face first into the ground then bouncing off as it tries to control its flight.

I fire another phasic round at the other as… It's gone.

"Aah!"

A blue blur is zooming around Zatanna, pummelling on her construct armour! I fortify it-

"Pirt!"

-and it holds while the superspeed… Are they cyborgs or robots? They were cyborgs in the comics. I'm not seeing any emotional resonance but it's not like I haven't been blocked before. The OMAC hurtles off and slams into a shipping crate at the rear of the combat area, denting it and then dropping to the floor. I target the eye on its chest with another phasic round as Donna grapples in the air with the other. The round bypassed the shield -I assume that it's still up- and strikes home.

"Ereeeeeeeeehhh…"

The OMAC just about has time to shudder before a second torrent of water slams into it. The barrier apparently _isn't_ up at the moment so this time it hits successfully, freezing it against the metal surface. Raquel follows up by putting her force bubble around it. That _should_ prevent it getting away.

Donna gets an arm lock on the other and starts forcing it towards the floor. It goes limp, causing her grip to loosen just enough for it to turn its head to face her and fire heat vision directly into her face! My construct armour holds but she jerks back in an attempt to evade, allowing it to turn and punch her in the diaphragm. Tula fires a volley of super hard ice shards at it but it just ignores them. Strength, toughness, flight and heat vision? Are they channelling Superman?

The OMAC that attacked me starts to vibrate at superspeed, causing the ice to explode outwards before being caught by the kinetic bubble. Garth gestures and it turns back into liquid, enveloping the OMAC in a flexible prison. That usually takes a lot out of him, I need to come up with a way to put them-.

"Forget about me, mate?"

A red blur flies through the air towards me as I see the afterimage along the wall. Having trained against Wallace the dodge-vertigo inducer-shockcrown counter is so heavily ingrained-

"Whbllagh!"

-that I don't consciously think about it. The perils of fighting your alter egos, I suppose; they know how to counter you. Assuming he-. Jackie hits the wall and _isn't_ reduced to paste, but he won't be participating further in this fight.

Wait. Jackie's British? I don't remember that from-.

The OMAC in the water bubble is glowing brilliantly, forcing Garth to turn aside. Raquel's barrier doesn't affect light based weapons, does it? The cyborg fixes its eye on her and raises its left hand to fire a brilliant golden beam. It clips her armour construct as she hurries to evade, dropping the force bubble as she does so.

The OMAC fighting Donna phases through her then turns to strike her from behind! Before it can land the blow I hit it with a phased particle beam. It jerks then shudders in the air, giving Donna enough time to turn and slam her right fist into the eye on its chest. Martian phasing!

"Troia. Back."

She jerks back in the air as I fire mundane solid rounds at full power and maximum speed at the eye on the chest, sending it slamming into the ground. I see cracks appearing in the epidermis _**blaaghuh**_! Aagh, that felt like a telepathic… Telepathic attack. Armour's still up but I lost the guns. Garth dives for cover as the water he was using to imprison the second OMAC explodes as superheated steam-

"Looc Nwod!"

-then falls to the floor as scalding hot water.

"Fuck it. Leerooooy!" Rob charges through the steam, x-ionised sword drawn and held forwards. "Jenk_uhk_!" The OMAC punches one glowing fist through his construct armour and catches him around the throat as its eye starts to glow. "_AbannanafolBeowolf_."

Orange lightning explodes outwards. Rob doesn't try to absorb all of it, just what tries to electrocute _him_. The rest burns into the OMAC, its hand coming open as it loses control of its musculature.

"Chest eye!"

Rob aims his x-ionised sword carefully for a second and then thrusts it forward, entering the eye point first and passing through the whole torso to emerge out of the back.

"Eughah."

The OMAC collapses as Rob pulls his sword out. I need to… My head still feels clouded. There's no blood on the sword so hopefully that means that there _aren't_ people inside there. I can take them apart to make sure of that later. The OMAC I was shooting appears to have disappeared. I… Should… Filaments..?

"Zatanna, track… Track the other one!"

She nods. "Laever ruo-."

Brilliant flares go off around her!

"Ah, um, neddih ymene! There!"

She points and I look around. Her focus was probably-. The OMAC is kneeling down next to Jackie. I grit my teeth and form a phased particle beam construct even as Rob starts jogging back to the front of the room and the Atlanteans ready themselves to continue the fight. Its head jerks around and -minds clear!- it blurs into motion once more. I fill the area with as many razor-edged constructs as I can but I'm not even sure that I get them in place before it gets away.

"Zatanna? Where's it going? "

"Wohs em eht s'tobor noitanitsed!" Her eyes flash for a second. "Straight up! It's pulling out."

I nod, relaxing slightly and removing all constructs bar the armour. "Anyone hurt?"

Rob rubs his neck with his left hand. "Throat's a bit sore, but I can fix that myself."

As everyone else indicates the negative I activate the Bleed Fracture Pulse transmitter. "Orange Lantern to Aqualad. Be advised that some sort of Amazo-like robot is heading up the building with an unconscious Jackie Quick. We'll be with you in a moment."


End file.
